Red Lights and Metal Corpses
by ShaynerB
Summary: Years after the death of the fabled Sofia Lamb, Rapture rebuilds. Groups form, leaders emerge, and little by little, civility is coming back into the dead city. As two young siblings are thrown into Rapture against their will, they only have one way to survive: rule.
1. Chapter 1 - Luke

Chapter 1- Luke

A light and airy voice with solid, deep undertones resounded around the large, metal room. "Come on, Mr. Bubbles, I see an angel!"

Luke, crouching, quietly made sure his revolver was loaded and ready to go.

It was.

He silently looked over to his group leader, Frankie, and was surprised when he motioned for Luke and the others to wait.

"She's found an angel, see, she's collecting her juicy adam…" he whispered into his radio. Luke didn't like the way he talked, but he was his best bet of surviving for a couple days in this submarine hellhole. After this, he would take his share and probably sneak out to find another group with a Little Sister in their sights.

But he had to get through this first. He studied the Little Sister's protector, a Bouncer Tin Can. Its massive helmet glowed a bright green as of right then, but Luke knew it would be a deep, bloody red once they began. It's incredible drill hung limply from its right arm, and its bronze colored armor showed dim in the twilight.

The Little Sister had been 'code named' Lucy, and Luke's temporary group had been following her for days. She looked around six years old and was about three and a half feet tall. Her skin, from the transformation, was now a sickly grey-blue hue. The only problem was, her protector would follow her around everywhere. The only times Lucy was alone was when she inside the vents, climbing and crawling from place to place, but, of course, no grown man or woman could fit inside them to get her. So, without any other option, they were forced to kill her Tin Can.

There were five in Luke's group, but he had only chosen to remember one: Frankie. He was the adam-addicted leader of Luke's group, and you could tell he'd been hit hard by withdrawals. His face was fatally misshapen, one eye lower than the other, and the left side of his face was bloated, and swollen with extra skin. His skin was constantly red and hot, and his voice was heavily accented by swollen lips.

Basically, there were two good things about him, from what Luke could tell: 1. He had knowledge of two Little Sisters in Poseidon's Pit, one of which was Lucy, and 2. he could use plasmids. He usually had a lead pipe in one hand, and the Electro Bolt plasmid in the other. His plan was to shock the Tin Can and then walk up and… whack him? Ah, nevermind, Luke just knew it would work.

Luke and his group, staying hidden, followed Lucy and her Tin Can from afar into a large open area, where many people had lived before the rebellion. Luke could almost imagine the huge crowds making their daily commutes. Luke recognized this place- this was the center of one of the largest districts in the city. The empty stores and stalls all around Luke looked dilapidated and lonely, broken and abandoned. He remembered his father walking him through here on the way to their new dwelling, and his mind filled with nostalgia.

Waking from his memories, Luke saw Lucy cheerfully skip through the plaza to a dead, mutilated corpse, and say, "Here he is, Mr. Bubbles! Isn't he perfect?"

Luke could see from where he was that he was not. This 'angel,' like Frankie, had a huge, swollen face, which was now half in a puddle of water and blood staring limply at the sea above. The angel's formerly fine clothes were ripped and frayed at the edges, and a small fedora lay upside down beside his head. Luke could see the stab wound where, presumably, some sort of blade had been shoved through his abdomen. As he focused, he found that the blade was still there. _Funny,_ he thought.

Luke went over their plan in his head; he and Frankie would stay in the back, while the other three would get a little closer. When Frankie thought we were ready, he would shout and throw an Electro Bolt at the Tin Can, shocking him, and the three closest to Lucy would run up immediately with their pipes and hammers and try to smack him to death while Luke shot at him from afar, trying to break through his helmet.

 _Woah. That should work, right? Ya, ya... at least for me._

Luke watched blankly as Lucy roughly stabbed her large adam syringe deep into the man. He saw the syringe slowly fill with the deep red color of blood and almost hurled when Lucy bit on the nipple and took a swig of the adam-infested liquid. When she let off, her lips were blood red, and when she smiled her teeth were stained.

"Mmmm… I think I'll save some for later, Mr. Bubbles. You never know how long it'll be until we find another _angel_." Her voice seemed to constantly have an underlying, much _deeper_ secondary voice. He wondered how that worked.

Luke was brought back to his senses by the three melee attackers walking steadily towards Tin Can. Stupidly, the big-and-tall one tripped over a fallen _Poseidon's Theatre!_ sign, almost falling, and silently looked up at the Tin Can in fear. When the hulking zombie-in-a-suit saw him, the thing turned in his direction and spun his drill in a defensive stance, his helmet glowing yellow instead of green.

 _HHHHHHHHNNNNNNRRROOOOAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH_ , it moaned, seeing the others walk slowly towards him. The three grotesque splicers set into an aggressive formation first seen by humanity in wolf packs.

"They won't… hurt us, will they Mr. Bubbles?" the girl asked, taking position behind the monster's leg.

Luke crawled steadily over a fallen pillar and got into cover. He looked at Frankie, who had hidden behind a _Fortune Teller!_ machine. Frankie looked back at him and mouthed _Not Yet._

Luke nodded and looked back towards the Tin Can. The three were looking at each other confusedly, most likely waiting for a signal. They looked back at Frankie, and the one who tripped yelled, asking why they were waiting. Frankie shook his head in disappointment, and counted:

 _1… 2… 3!_

"RAAAHHHH!" Frankie yelled, shooting a fast-as-light bolt of electricity in the general direction of the Tin Can.

Fortunately, he didn't hit Lucy.

Unfortunately, he didn't hit the Tin Can either.

Just as soon as he yelled, Mr. Big-and-Tall decided to run forward, and the blue-ish light of the bolt vanished straight into his gut.

He instantly fell to the ground, spasming and paralyzed, but the other two didn't lay off, running straight at the Tin Can. One tried getting at his huge helmet, but just when his arm was at the highest point, the Tin Can simply grabbed him by the waist and threw him into the wall, instantly killing him. Lucy screamed.

The other was a little smarter. She waited a moment and went for the Tin Can's legs. Her first hit actually landed, buckling the Bouncer's knee. The Tin Can swayed a small amount, and then, before she could get away, grabbed her head and shoved his spinning drill straight into her abdomen, ripping through her clothes and skin and muscle, and, after a pause, dropped her limp, bloody body on the ground beside him.

Luke didn't have time to react. He quickly brought up his revolver and started to shoot at the huge mass that was now looming over Big-and-Tall. It recoiled, moaning loud enough to where it could be called a scream.

Big-and-Tall finally came to his senses and started to crawl away from the Tin Can, yelling for help from someone named "Monica". Luke shot through his six bullets faster than he realized, and his next pull of the trigger held a dissatisfying _click_ instead of a flying bullet. Ducking into cover, he quickly opened the cartridge, letting the bullet shells out, and shoved six new bullets in to replace them.

When he was ready to shoot again, he came out of cover to see Big-and-Tall's deformed and bloody corpse under the Tin Can's heavy foot. Its helmet was a deep red, and, staring directly at Luke, it spun his drill and started to slowly walk forward. Tension forced his eyes only at the monster in front of him, and as it came closer, Luke's overcoming sense of hopelessness he'd only had a few times in his life came back to him as the few bullets he had daintily bounced off of the creature's helmet.

"Mr. Bubbles!" Lucy suddenly screamed, "Help!"

Both Luke and the Tin Can looked at her at once, to find Frankie holding her, desperately trying to quiet her and slip away at the same time.

The Tin Can, of course, was the first to react. It screamed again and bolted at Frankie, making him drop Lucy and fall back. The Bouncer held up its massive drill and was about to bring it down when another bolt of lightning shot from Frankie's hand and flew into Tinny's metal suit, paralyzing him for the moment.

Luke took that opportunity to run. He turned and ran as fast as he could away from the plaza. He heard, through his breathing and loud footsteps, a metal-on-metal sound, a "NO!" from Frankie, and then a guttural cry followed by the sound of metal going into flesh, all topped off by a gas engine running. The sounds continued, and so did the screaming, for a few seconds, but Luke kept running, not looking back at any cost. He heard another limp body hit the ground, making a splash in a puddle, and the Tin Can let out a moan that sounded like triumph and warning.

As he ran from the devastating scene, he could hear the relieved girl's voice following him.

"You saved me again, Mr. Bubbles! You're my hero, my Camelot!"


	2. Chapter 2 - Daisy

Chapter 2- Daisy

Daisy looked down into the cold and blue hue of the Jellyfish Plaza and checked her old radio, but yet again, no sign of her brother. She was starting to get scared, but she told herself that he was almost always late, and that he would be here within the hour. Hopefully this was just another time the idiot thought he saw an adam slug, or he met a girl he thought was nice.

But Daisy didn't just want him home just to make sure he was safe; he was Father's single source of adam. Without him, Daisy would either have to try and convince Ryan to go out and get some, or she would have to go out herself. But they needed to get the dangerous liguid- without it, Father would die, and she had no idea how she could cope with Ryan alone.

Ryan was her brother; the 14 year old angsty teenager who 'no one understood'. Last time Daisy checked, he had unkempt, curly blonde hair, and he hadn't cut it since, what, a month ago? He had deep, green eyes, and especially long eyelashes. He was in the 'Sun Room' as he always was, staring indefinitely at those screens. For some reason, he'd always had an obsession with the thing they call the 'Sun' on the surface. Something about giving everything on earth life and growing crops and 'being the sole parent of humanity,' as Ryan had put it. She thought his obsession was stupid. There _was_ no Sun down here.

She looked back into her room, which was filled with books, papers, and drawings of Rapture and the ocean. The blue and black hues somehow had fit together into one comprehensive whole. She got up from where she was sitting and went to her desk, where an already-started drawing of Jellyfish lied. She'd been drawing for what seemed like years now, and she loved it; the ability to put whatever picture you have in your mind onto paper, and to able to do so in a comprehensive and aesthetic whole.

The only thing she really drew, however, was Rapture, and Jellyfish Junction, specifically. She hadn't really been outside of it for years, and still wasn't allowed out to this day.

"Twelve-year-olds don't go into Dead Rapture," Luke had said. And she believed him.

She got a deep, navy blue colored pencil and colored in some of the sketched lines. She tried to make the blending of the colors as smooth and invisible as possible, so that the whole drawing was like a blob of blue and black, except for the bright purple neon sign that read _Jellyfish Junction!_ in the middle.

She'd seen this place all her life, but she had never gotten sick of it. She loved the way half the the sign had fallen off, making the sign almost vertical. She loved the way the fallen statue of Andrew Ryan seemed to be sad, and the way the drops of water from the glass ceiling dropped in a predictable pattern. So much character called for so many drawings; so much expression called for so much art.

Sometimes she saw a lone 'Tin Can,' as Luke called them, pass through, but there were never any Little Sisters with them. Luke had told her about the things, though-

"They're, like, six-year-old girls, and they have this really creepy skin tone that just shows the sickness inside them. They have glowing yellow eyes, and they all wear this dress with a bow on the back. All in all, they're incredibly creepy, and the Tin Cans are always following them. Apparently, when Tenenbaum found that the slugs create around 30 times the adam when inside a living person, this guy named Frank Fontaine created orphanages for abandoned little girls, and used them to sell loads of adam," Luke had told her.

He only sometimes gave her history lessons like that, but when he did, they both loved it. Daisy loved learning about Rapture and it's dysfunctional history. All of it was so interesting- seeing how people reacted when they had all the power in their world, trying to figure out what made successful people successful, the rebellion and everything that had to do with it. It served as a substitute for never being able to leave, she supposed.

"Hroooooahhhh…" she heard from outside her room.

 _I suppose it is time for lunch,_ she thought.

She got up from her desk and walked outside of her room. She paused, made sure Ryan was still in his space, and leaned into the side room where Father lied. The grotesque human body of her father lay in the same place, with the same grotesque features- only eye sockets, and a left nostril. Deep scars on the right side of his face, and a large part of the bottom lip cut out, as well as most of his tongue. Her father sensed her arrival, and drew on his pad a short welcome.

"So I'm guessing you're pretty hungry, then?" she asked.

He nodded, and wrote, _Watcha got?_

"Uhhh, no adam right now, but I'm sure Luke'll be here soon. For now, how about we have some yummy… mashed potatoes?"

He nodded. Daisy walked out of his room and into the small kitchen. She recalled, again, how her father had lost his eyes and tongue. According to Luke, he had been on an adam scavenging mission when he got into a fight with a splicer who got ahold of the the Swarm of Bees plasmid. Now he was a mute and blind organism who had the convenient ability of writing without sight. His handwriting was actually better than Daisy's, and that was saying something.

Anyway, she got out the leftover mashed potatoes from yesterday and scooped some into a bowl, with a spoon. She then brought them to Father, who wrote _Thanks, hon._ on his pad, and started to dig in.

She wasn't that hungry, so she got a Pep-Bar and went back to her room. She started to color again for a small time, until she heard another call from Father.

Confused, she stumbled out of her room and into her father's.

"What do you need?"

 _is luke back yet?_ the pad read.

"Uh, no, not yet, but I'm sure he'll be here soon."

 _no, you don't understand,_ he wrote, _i need some now._

"I'm sorry, Father, we just don't have any. What's wrong?"

 _something bad. i feel horrible, i need adam. now._

"Like, something… _really_ bad, or just discomfort?" Daisy's head cocked to the side; she'd never heard this before.

Suddenly, Father started to spasm, gagging, and he leaned on the side of the bed and vomited into the bucket always kept there. Daisy stood back and watched in horror as her father started to cough up blood.

She recoiled. "Oh, god, what's _wrong,_ father?! What's happening?!" she yelled.

When Father was done, he lied back down and started to write.

 _im not sure but i think the withdrawals are getting back to me._

Daisy didn't know what he meant. Did adam withdrawals cause internal bleeding? Luke had never told her anything about that, just that Father needed it to feel better . She made sure Father okay for now, and went to check the window looking into Jellyfish. Where was Luke? He was usually here by now, where could he be? The empty plaza was as empty as ever, with the normal water drops dropping where they usually did.

She went back into her father's room. Things had gotten worse. The bucket was filled higher with stomach acid and blood, and her father had written more on his notepad.

 _i think it might happen soon_ , he wrote.

"Wh-what?" she stuttered, "N-no, this is way too fast, it would take longer, wouldn't it?" she yelled. "Ryan! We need adam! _Now!_ "


	3. Chapter 3 - Ryan

Chapter 3- Ryan

The Suns were still alive.

He had cleaned them, cared for them, and kept them safe all his life. As soon as his father had first shown them to him, he had loved them, even if they were only screens. Just cameras from the outside connected to Rapture. The connection, however, allowed him to believe that there was somewhere else beside Rapture. He knew that if he lost them, there would be no chance of ever seeing one again. This, according to Father, was the last remaining communication center in Rapture. And Rapture's side was cut off years ago.

But, whatever. That's why Ryan would never leave this room for more than 2 minutes a couple times a month. That's why Ryan had his own bathroom, and why he had his own refrigerator and his own water filter. That's why he had his own shower and sink and everything he needed to live. He never had to go; so he didn't.

Ryan heard screaming from Father's room. He wondered what was going on, but didn't check. What if the Suns disappeared while he was gone? What if someone from the surface tried to take the cameras down? He was sure Daisy could handle it anyway; she always seemed to know what to do.

"Oh, god, what's _wrong,_ father?! What's happening?!" he heard Daisy yell.

 _What is going on in there?_ Ryan thought. _So much noise._

He heard loud retching from Father's room, and he almost turned his head, but the Suns called back to him. _No, don't leave us,_ they seemed to say, _We'll die..._

"Ryan! We need adam! _Now!_ " Daisy yelled to him.

"What?" he said, not turning his head. "Luke should be here in a sec, just wait for him. I need to clean the screens." He picked up the squirt bottle and rag to his side.

"No, Ryan, you don't _understand,_ Father needs it, now!" she yelled. He could practically hear her shaking her head. "You need to go out and get some."

"Why don't _you_ do it? You're a teenager now, right? You can do something," he said, his voice cracking.

"Ryan, please, you need to do this." she replied, sounding angry. She burst into his room, almost making Ryan tear his eyes off the screens. "Also, I'm only twelve. That's not a _teen._ "

"Ah, close enough," he countered. "Either way, I bet Luke'll be here any minute."

Daisy smacked on his wall with her fist, making a weak _thump_ sound. "Ryan, your father is dying in his room of internal bleeding and adam withdrawals, and if we don't get adam soon, he _will_ die." Her voice was thick with contempt. Suddenly very sad, she pleaded, "Please, Ryan, help me this one time."

Ryan took a risk, and turned away from the screens, which were yelling at him to do the opposite, saying _No, you can't, you'll kill us all! Why would you do that?_

His eyes took more than a few seconds to react to the dimmer light, but when they did, Ryan realized that Daisy had grown since the last time he had seen her. Funny, seeing as they were in the same apartment 24/7.

Her face had become more defined, so that her formerly chubby appearance had become slightly sharper. She had grown a little vertically too, so that she was a little over 5 feet. Her straight brown hair fell down over her shoulders, and went almost to her hips. She had a simple baby blue dress on that went just below her knees, and had white leggings on, with small stains of dark red, possibly from Father's coughs. When he saw them, Ryan had to fight down a shiver of disgust.

"Daisy, you've… changed. You're older, I guess. Anyway, I'm sorry, but I can't help you. You see, even if the Suns couldn't die, I wouldn't be able to destroy a Tin Can, and even then, I don't know how to get adam from a Little Sister. How _could_ I know? I advise to either get some yourself or go get someone else. Or go out and find Luke yourself."

Daisy looked at Ryan with almost tangible condescension and hopelessness. She shook her head in the smallest way, and silently stepped out of the room, her eyes tearing up.

Ryan followed her quietly for the first time in… years, he supposed, wondering if the apartment had changed at all. Daisy went into her room as Ryan stepped into the kitchen, seeing if the toaster was in the same place. He heard quiet rambling from Daisy in her room, but he didn't care. She could hate him all she wanted, all he needed was the Sun. He was sick of her nagging anyway.

He looked through the kitchen window into Jellyfish Plaza, and saw that nothing had changed. Good. He hated change. Change meant loss. He didn't see Luke anywhere in the underwater courtyard, but he pulled a chair up and sat there, looking, anyway. The rambling in the other room had gotten a small bit louder, and Father's retching had started again. He thought about Luke, wondering if he had changed any since he last saw him. His last expedition had left last week, but Ryan hadn't actually _looked_ at him for what seemed like a few months. He had no need to. Luke would simply shout a greeting once he got back, and go to Father's room to help him, and, after a few days, the expedition cycle would start again. He would leave, saying "Alright, guys, see you on Tuesday." There was no change. It was an endless cycle, and Ryan liked it that way. Nothing different happened, there was never a surprise. And if there were, they would be good, like a few extra bits of food from a scavenging mission, or a nice person Luke had met. It never hurt anyone. The thing was, if Ryan tried to go on expeditions, everything would change. Luke would feel hurt that Ryan took his only job, and he might find his happiness in the Suns, like Ryan does. Speaking of which, Ryan wondered, how are my Suns doi-

Ryan heard a yell from Daisy in his room, and then the sound of glass breaking and a circuit cutting short. He bolted out of his chair, eyes wide open, and sprinted to his room to find Daisy, crying, with a hammer in her left hand, smashing and destroying the five screens, two of which were already cracked and sparking.

"No!" Ryan shouted, and before she could swing another Sun killing blow, tackled her to the ground, putting his right hand on her shoulder and pinning her neck down with his left elbow. Her hammer flew to the other side of Ryan's room, hitting his refrigerator. Daisy struggled, screaming bloody murder, but Ryan kept her down, doing the same. "Stop! Daisy, please, these are all I live for, stop killing what I love!"

He brought his hand off her shoulder and punched Daisy square in the face as hard as he could.

With Ryan's hand off her shoulder, Daisy reacted quickly. She shoved her newly freed arm into Ryan's exposed ribs, making him recoil. As he flinched, she pushed him off, gasping for air, and quickly stood up, purposefully using Ryan's head as a foothold. She ran across the room and got her hammer just as Ryan had gotten to his senses.

With a weak voice, she yelled, "These ' _Suns'_ will be the death of you, me, _and_ Father! It's because of these screens that you are so _terrible!_ " She went back towards the screens and swung, once again, at a Sun. The hammer hit the center with perfect precision, smashing the glass and the screen underneath it into a million pieces. Ryan could hear Sun number 3 scream in agony.

He got up, and tried to tackle her again, but Daisy saw him coming, and dodged his attack with startling speed, especially for a 12 year-old _._ He fell across the room, and heard number 4 cry with pain as it was smashed to bits. He turned around, and, before she could swing at the last Sun, screamed loud enough to startle Daisy for a moment.

She stopped and turned toward him, hammer still in hand. Tears were falling down her face and she screamed in distress and sadness as, without looking, she swung the hammer down one last time.

The last Sun's cry rang in Ryan's ears forever.


	4. Chapter 4 - Luke

Chapter 4- Luke

His campfire flickered in front of him as he thought about his next move. It had been around half a day since the Lucy fiasco, but there wasn't really time in Rapture, Luke reflected. You slept when you were sleepy, and worked when you weren't.

Anyway, Luke looked around the room he was in. Apparently running blindly into a massive city didn't help his sense of direction. He had, not thinking, gotten into an elevator for a chance to breathe and pressed a random button, then stumbled into the first room he saw. The place was called _Undersea Heights!_ or something like that. The walls were dilapidated and rotting, and the room's contents had been thrown around, as if the previous tenant had been in a fit as he left.

Luke supposed that maybe there was something around the room that could help him… do what? He still hadn't really figured that out. He was alone, vulnerable, and lost in a gigantic submarine city with no one to help him. To make matters worse, he had accidentally dropped his revolver on his sprint-spree, and didn't think it had been safe to bend down and pick it up, so his only reliable weapon was somewhere between this place (whatever it was) and Poseidon Plaza (wherever that was).

He thought that maybe if he found some sort of tourist map of Rapture or a full-on road map to guide him back home, he'd be set for home. Also, if he could get onto a source of adam, preferably safe, that would be perfect. Then he would go on his merry way back home, give Father his weekly dose, and do it again the next week.

The only problem was, again, that he was alone, vulnerable, and lost in a gigantic sub-marine city with no one to help him. He had no idea where to look, or even if he _should_ look. He _could_ stay in this room the rest of his sad, demented life and hope that Daisy was old enough to help Father, or that Ryan would get out of his chair for a day or two and do something for the family.

But he knew he couldn't do that. When he went out to do something, he had to do it. Or die trying. Preferably, the former.

 _But, for now,_ he thought, _I think some good sleep would be beneficial in this situation. Let's just hope no bed bugs or crazed, insane splicers get into my room._

Luke awoke to laughing. But not… happy laughing. More like insane, maniacal laughing. He got up and looked around for something to wield. The wooden board conveniently leaned up against the wall to his left seemed to suffice. He grabbed it, and slowly creeped towards the door.

The laughing steadily went down, and everything was silent. Without opening the door, Luke put his ear on the wall closest to him, listening to the other side. He couldn't hear anything except heavy breathing and his own heartbeat in his ears. Seconds passed, seeming like minutes. He quietly took his ears off the wall and sidled toward the door. There was a silhouette on the other side of the window, a lanky, tall figure with what looked like some sort of nurse's mask on. Luke wondered if he was willing to help him. Probably not, but he may as well ask, right?

"Hey, uh, sir? Are you okay? I was wonderi-"

The door burst open and the newly confirmed insane man jumped toward Luke, a lead pipe in his hand. Luke dodged his first attack and smacked the man in the head with his board, knocking him to the ground, unconscious.

He stared for a moment. This man had literally just learned of Luke's existence a few seconds ago, and immediately wanted to end it.

Luke decided to take this opportunity to check him, and see if he had a map or some food, and that lead pipe was a serious upgrade from his board. He set it down on the other side of the room in case the man got up before Luke thought he would, then cautiously walked toward the sleeping splicer. He checked his pockets, and found a few pistol rounds, but no pistol. And no map. And no adam.

Luke supposed it was time for him to leave anyway. He guessed he would just have to figure out his own way home.

A little shaken, Luke walked out of the room, wielding his pipe. Outside was a hallway, filled with more rooms. It was a hotel, he deducted. The rooms might have things he could use, he would have to check them out. At the end of the hallway, he saw a security camera, glowing red as they usually did. Luke had a small amount of knowledge on computers, maybe he could hack it to his advantage.

But later. Right now, he told himself, he decided to check the room across from his- room- 21-12. He mentally checked himself, then remembered, _Well, there's really nothing to lose, is there?_ , and opened the door.

Inside was a hotel room like his own, except with a different customer; a man on the floor, his head in a puddle of blood, with a revolver in his hand. There was no sign of anyone attacking him, so he could only think of the worst.

Luke hated to do it, but he needed that pistol, so he quickly and cautiously took it from his hand. He loaded the few rounds he already had into it, then checked the body for any more. None. Luke guessed he designated the last bullet for himself.

He checked the containers around the room for anything else he could use, but just found small amounts of canned food. Perfect, he supposed, for the road.

He went out of that depressing room and braced himself for the next room, 21-13. His pipe felt heavy in his hand as he turned the handle.

Locked.

Luke had forgotten that things were still locked in Rapture, and stood confused for a moment. He tried the door again, just to make sure. Nothing. He then shook his head and went to the next room.

Out of all the rooms Luke checked (the whole of the 21st floor, which consisted of twenty rooms), he found six revolver rounds, a knife, and a _Family Size!_ bag of potato chips. The rest had already been scavenged, or so Luke assumed. Multiple times he had been out onto a square balcony- going all the way around the center of the building- looking down into the plaza 21 stories down. He'd been too preoccupied with scavenging to look at the whole hotel, so he decided to take a break and maybe figure out what to do next.

The balcony was made of wood, which was a little worrying for Luke, as wood didn't do well with water, and they were in a city _under the sea._ He tested the wood in front of him, making sure it was strong enough to hold anything.

The wood seemed strong enough, so he put his whole weight on the creaking, suspended floor. His heart pounded loudly as he gingerly stepped to the handrail on the edge, grabbing it quickly. Luke wondered why this was so hard for him; was he scared of heights? He'd never thought about it before, he'd never been anywhere high.

Anyway, he looked up first, to try and suspend his newly-found phobia for a few seconds. The building was _tall_. Considering how tall his floor was, he figured the whole thing was about 40 stories tall. The very top of the building was a sea-roof, and Luke could see the marine life floating and swimming above him.

He braced himself to look down. He took a deep breath, and forced his neck muscles to tilt his head downward.

Even from halfway up the building, the floor below him showed thousands of miles away. Luke swayed, flailing his arms, as his body threatened to throw him off the edge. As he steadied himself, he thought, _ohmanohmanohmanpleasenodon'tthrowmeplease._ He grabbed onto the handrail once again, and looked in greater detail at the abyss below.

In the front were three sets of double doors, two of which were blocked by debris which had seem to fallen in since the war. On the right side was what looked like a diner, and on the right side was a kiosk that read _Concierge_ on the center.

 _Perfect!_ Luke thought, _I can just go down and see if there's any maps down there! Maybe this little detour won't be as troubling as I thought it would be._ Luke turned away from the balcony, walking hurriedly away from the death-balcony. Luke felt a little… shameful for being so scared, but there was no one around anyway, who cared?

He hurried over to the elevator, wondering where the elevator _was,_ and pressed the call button.

Nothing happened.

He tried again. Nothing, again. Usually a caller could hear the elevator burst into motion, and see the elevator lines moving.

But… where were the lines?

Luke _really_ did not want to do this, but he felt he had no other choice, so he lifted first cage manually, and stuck his head into the elevator shaft, holding on to the walls with all his strength. At the bottom was the elevator, yes, but the lines, the important things, were all there too, in a massive pile above the brass roof.

Luke sighed. Nothing could be easy, could it? He checked the other two that were there, but the elevator he went in yesterday was the only working one anyway. He checked anyway to make sure, and, yes, the elevator shafts 2 and 3 were collapsed and burnt, respectively.

Luke sat in the center of the mini-plaza. How else could he get down? He wasn't going to _jump,_ and he didn't see any other…

His eyes moved to a metal door with a sign above it that said _Stairs._ He supposed he had no other choice, though he did not like the idea of walking down 21 flights of stairs. Ah, well. Maybe he could loot some of the other rooms, while he was there.

He got up and walked toward the door, thinking, _Why did this have to happen to_ me _?_


	5. Chapter 5 - Ryan

_**Sorry for the (really) late update! From now on I want to upload a couple of chapters every week, so stay tuned! ~S**_

Chapter 5- Ryan

" _So remember, son, make sure to take good care of these screens. They're the last clear look at the Sun in these parts of Rapture. If you lose these, we lose the Sun, and no one would want for that to happen, would they?"_

That's what Father had told Ryan as they moved into the apartment- those exact words. If he lost the screens, he'd lose the Sun. And that's what happened. He'd walked away from the Suns for a minimal couple of minutes, and now they were lost forever, at the hands of that _fiend,_ Daisy. He couldn't believe they were related. Wouldn't.

She was the sole reason that his life had turned from a heaven into a hell in less than a day, the sole reason for the dampness of Ryan's clothes as he ran away from home with nothing but a bag that was originally Luke's. The sole reason that he wanted to simply fall down and cry, or beat his fists against his legs until he passed out.

All of these thoughts went through his crazed mind as he sprinted, without thinking, anywhere that was open. He simply wanted to get away from the darkness, away from home, away from the Suns he had let down. The Suns he had killed. The Suns he had kept alive for years and years, which were now gone. Forever. Away, away, from everything.

He went through hundreds, thousands of useless doorways, all sliding up with the same discordance, leading to hundreds and thousands of useless rooms that meant nothing to anybody. He caught glimpses of mostly blues and grays, with small smatterings of red and brown. Nothing but the sound of his footsteps and his outstandingly loud heartbeat resonated in his ears, and the humid air around him brought scents of mold and mildew as he breathed quickly.

Ryan's legs had not felt this amount of exercise in many years- they were beginning to fail. They shook as he ran, and eventually, they dropped, forcing Ryan to the ground. Crying, he hit the floor with a pitiful thud. After a moment, he sat up and began to smash his clenched fists into the soft meat of his useless thighs, yelling at them. At their failure. He did this until his fists hurt, and he couldn't feel his legs anymore.

Ryan didn't have time for this; he had to get _away._ He began to crawl with his arms, just trying to get to the next room. Quickly, his arms hurt from the pain of deoxygenation. He breathed deeper, as deep as he could, but it was not deep enough.

He barely made it past the next doorway before he passed out, screaming.

A silhouette stood over him, a light behind them making it black. He heard a strong, but young voice. "Good, you're alive."

He felt a warm heat, like that of a heat disk, but couldn't open his eyes wide enough to identify what it was.

He bolted upright, his head ringing, and tried to get up, but a pair of hands kept him down. He was laying down on a blanket, a fire next to him fueled by crackling debris. He was in a small room, with doors in front and behind him- easy escape routes. The room was metal, and tiny, most likely used for storage or passage. A simple light bulb hung from the ceiling.

"Woah, man, take it easy, you've been there a while. How about you just sit up for a second?"

Doing as the person asked, Ryan looked at his… whatever he was. He was a teenage boy, maybe 15 years old. His face was oddly clear and human, very different from most of the population. He had piercing blue eyes, and his hair was sort of like Luke's, swept off his face. His build was also similar to Luke's- lanky, but not awkward. He wore a common blue shirt and jeans, with a black leather belt. On it was a holstered pistol, one that looked like it was from the surface. Just behind it was a large knife, holstered in leather.

"Uhh… who are you?" Ryan said drowsily. "I… What happened?"

The boy sat down, legs criss crossed. "You were gonna die of exhaustion and dehydration, and I saved you, that's what happened. I saw you running- by the way, man, you run _fast-_ and you looked, I don't know, insane or something, so I thought I'd follow you. Then you flopped, and started to... crawl and stuff…" he looked away awkwardly, "And, then, you just, like, stopped. Passed out. By the way, what were trying to get away from?"

Ryan squinted, and brought his hands up to rub his temples. He had an _intense_ headache- he could feel every heartbeat in his head, paining him with every contraction. He looked his defender in the eye. His weak, squeaky voice almost startled him. "I don't know who you are, but please, _please,_ go away. I don't want you, I don't need you. Thanks and everything, but I don't need _people_ in my life right now." With that, Ryan crawled to a corner of the room, his legs still too weak to function.

The boy's face changed quickly- from surprise to offense to curiosity in a matter of a couple seconds. "What the hell happened, man? What's wrong with you?"

Ryan put down a sharp response- he didn't have time for arguments. He shook his head, and replied, "Nothing that I'd tell you. Please. Thanks for… helping me or whatever, but please, go away."

The boy walked toward him, saying "Is there something that will hurt _me?_ I need to know, dude, just tell me." He crouched in front of Ryan, blocking his exits without even knowing, and put his hand on Ryan's shoulder, trying to show support.

Ryan hit his hand off dramatically. "Go away! Really," he spit, looking for a way out. His patience was draining quickly.

The boy was now angry- "Just tell me, you stupid kid! I'm not going to hurt you, Christ!"

Ryan's overwhelming feelings had already burned out his muscles, but they weren't done yet. He took a deep breath.

" _She_ happened," he said, pointing back in the direction of his old home. "I had all I needed, and she took it away, destroyed all I ever loved. The screens are gone. The Suns are gone. My home's gone, everything's gone. All thanks to her. And now... I'm here, alone with a stranger who could kill me any second, and I don't know what to do, but I don't need you, but I don't _want_ you, I'll figure this out myself," he looked away from the boy's eyes, thoughts racing in his mind as his tongue went on, "figure it out myself, just trust me, I don't want you, I hate you, I hate everybody, everything's _gone, gone, gone, everything's so wrong!"_ Ryan fell to his side, crying again, and when the boy came closer, his legs finally kicked into motion, forcing him away. "Go away!" he screamed, thrashing about, trying to kick at this boy that called himself his 'savior'.

The boy finally retreated, shaking his head. "Fine," he said as he walked away.

Ryan stopped thrashing. He was still tired, _so tired,_ but he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. He was too excited, but not in a fun way. He sat up, watching the boy walk away. He knew it was for the best. Ryan couldn't have a companion, too much work. He didn't really like _talking_ to people, he'd literally spent his life in a hole.

The fire burned bright in the twilight, and even through his tears, he could see it's beauty. He stopped crying for a moment, and smiled. _What is happening?_ He thought as a wave of out-of-place contentedness and comfort washed over him. He took a deep breath, and scented something odd- plastic. He blinked, and the fire's area of light grew even larger. Quickly, he wiped his eyes, pushing off the tears, and saw that the flames had spread to his backpack.

He strongly kicked at the backpack, pushing it away from the fire. It's flames stuck well, spreading across the canvas as it was pushed across the room. Crawling over as quickly as he could, he began to stamp out the flames with his hands, disregarding the pain as the flames cooked his skin. Eventually, the flames were out, and the backpack was, for all intents and purposes, destroyed.

He shoved the insides out onto the cold metal floor. Everything usable inside was covered in ash, including a knife, a couple pistol rounds, and some cans. He tried dusting them off, but quickly found that ash was hard to get off of a sharp knife without cutting yourself.

He bowed his head, becoming overwhelmingly tired again. The normal sadness and anger of the day came over him again, and he sat thinking about his worth as he scooted toward the fire, his last belongings in hand. Sitting cross-legged, he opened a can of peaches and chowed down, trying not to cut his hands on the sharp metal can.

Looking down, he noticed the numerous amounts of cuts and scrapes all over his legs. Looking back, he supposed running around the dead city of Rapture with shorts and a tee shirt was not the safest way. Putting down the peaches, he made sure none of the cuts were bleeding at the moment, and straightened his legs in the process.

Sheer soreness crushed his thighs as they worked to change his position. A little scared, he brought up his shorts to examine what he had done to his legs.

Massive, deep bruises covered his upper thighs, looking like a disease. Reds and purples mixed with sick blues and yellows, and soft flesh was softer inside these colors. As soon as he touched part of the bruise, his nerves came to life just to show how much pain he had caused, and made him flinch.

He put his shorts back into normal position, shaking his head and sulking, and restarted eating his peaches, looking into the reds and yellows of the fire in front of him.


	6. Chapter 6 - Daisy

Chapter 6- Daisy

Everyone was gone.

Ryan ran away just after Daisy destroyed those screens, taking nothing but a backpack. Luke left a week before, and he still wasn't back yet. And, because of that, Father was gone too. He had died 2 days after Ryan left, and Daisy had been the only one of his children at his deathbed. The last words he had ever written were " _i dont know but i think the adam withdrawals are getting back to me."_

She tried. She had tried so hard, searching the whole apartment for a _drop_ of adam, searching and hoping, and when she found nothing, she did it again, and again, for the whole of the 2 days before Father died. After Ryan left. She had had nothing better to do.

 _Ryan._

That human representation of failure was the reason this had all happened. If he hadn't been so _stupid_ and had actually done something to help his family, maybe Father would still be alive. But no. All because of those screens. Because of those 'Suns'.

She sighed. It had been a week since Ryan left, which was 5 days since Father passed, and 2 weeks since Luke had left. Daisy decided it was time to leave. She had sat in this filthy apartment, wallowing in sadness for the past week, waiting for Luke, hoping he would come back by himself, but obviously, that wasn't happening. She decided she would go and find him herself, alive or dead.

Daisy had done a few things to get ready for the first time outside. She left a short note in her room summarizing what had happened in the past few weeks, in case she left and Luke came back. She collected a backpack with all the stuff she would need- a plate, a cooking pot, some food, a bedroll, some extra clothes, a pack of matches, a bottle of lighter fluid, and so on. She got out the revolver and a bowie knife that was always in her father's safe, and she put together a few medkits- she knew she would get hurt somehow.

She didn't have any pants- that wasn't a thing women wore in Rapture- so she decided she would just have to go out in her dress- another simple blue one, with long sleeves and puffy shoulders. She did have a belt, though, where she could holster her weapons. So much for going out in style.

She was ready to leave.

She walked into her kitchen, where all of her collected things were. She holstered her revolver and her knife on her left side. She picked up the backpack and put it on her back, checking in her mind that everything was there. She adjusted her feet in her flats, trying to make them even slightly comfortable.

She looked back at her old house- her old room, her old kitchen, the destroyed screen room, Father's room, Luke's tiny closet. So many memories lied in these walls, in her drawings, in this toaster right next to her- everything had something… and she was about to leave it. All. She was going to leave, and never come back. And it felt good just _thinking_ about it. She hated how everything happened here; nothing ever seemed to go right, to make Daisy happy. Drawing simply distracted her from the depressing, submarine hell she constantly lived in. It seemed like she hadn't smiled in years.

She was going to find a place to live in; she'd heard of modern 'tribes' that had sprouted up around Rapture. Then she would try to find Luke. Or, if she could, she would go up to the surface, though she doubted it was much better up there.

She turned around and walked out of the door she'd never gone through before.

She was outside… outside of the Plaza, outside of her apartment, outside of her life. It was amazing! She had traveled the rest of the day, for hours, in no particular direction except away from home. The debris found everywhere in the city had its own special appeal, and every room had its own story for her to decipher and love. The sights of the oceanic city were incredible, as she was at the bottom of her building and could not even see the tops of the skyscrapers around her, or the surface of the ocean. Sea life she had never seen before clung to the windows, and schools of fish swam quickly just outside of the building.

She'd spent most of the time just inspecting these places and things she had never seen before; things that were completely new to her. After the initial thrill went away, she began to think. What would she do? She'd thought about this before, at her old residence, but her initial plan was practically shattered at this point. Now, she had no plan, other than to walk around, explore, and hopefully find Luke someday soon. Then she would travel around more, and settle down a little bit. Maybe she would even find someone along the way...

But today, she had had enough. She'd walked for hours, and her legs were tired. Dirt covered her leggings, and they were cut open in many places she had not been careful enough to avoid. Daisy decided on staying in a large business looking room, like a conference room but without a table, with one door, which she decided she would trap. She found some old papers and some wooden debris, pushed it all into a pile in the middle of the room, and poured some lighter fluid over it. She stood far away from the fire, having never done this before, and lit a match. The small flame danced as she threw it into the pile.

The debris burst into flame, making Daisy jump away in panic. After a few seconds, a small flame stayed on a piece of paper on the edge of the pile, but for the most part, the fire had burned itself out. Not wanting to use another match, she cupped her hand around the flame, encouraging it toward a piece of wood.

After a few minutes, a piece of wood finally caught fire. After a pause of recognition, she then started to trap the door with a simple slipknot trap- if someone fell into it, they would be dangling upside down by the time she woke up. Not only would it work as a dangerous and potentially fatal trap, but it'd also be hilarious for her at the same time.

When she was done, she looked at her makeshift camp and felt proud of herself. She made this all with no one else. With no help. No Father, or Luke, or anyone that would baby her until everything was done. Daisy sat down for the first time since the start of her expedition. Her legs hurt, so she completely relaxed, leaning back on the wall behind her. She grinned, happy for the chance to relax.

After a moment, she grabbed her backpack and brought out her watch- 8:00 p.m. She nodded and pulled out her bed bag. She laid it out on the ground next to the fire, and slipped in quietly, enjoying the dim light.

As she slipped into sleep, she smiled.

Her trap went off. The shout gave it away.

Daisy bolted upright, and immediately looked toward the door- she saw, in a matter of seconds, a young man trip, hit his poor head on the ground, and then get pulled up by his ankles, unconscious. As he hung from the doorway, upside down and bleeding from his head, another man pushed his way in, waving around a dangerous looking, long blade.

Daisy pushed herself out of her sleeping bag, drew her knife from her belt, not wanting to make too much noise, and stood up quickly. The new man- a lanky, balding man with a suspicious mustache- was halfway across the room by the time she got up. She put herself in a defensive stance, with the knife diagonal across her body, an arm's length out.

The man tilted his head, holding a charismatic position, and with a weaselly tone said, "Look, little lady, just give me your bag and any other supplies you may have and me and my friend here will leave you alone, all right?"

Daisy said nothing, just shook her head fiercely. There was no negotiating with thieves.

After a pause, the man turned, suddenly angry, and yelling, ran at Daisy, brandishing his sword-ish thing with the madness of the Middle Ages.

Daisy, panicking, tried to swing and dodge at the same time, but failed, simply bouncing her tiny knife against the opponents machete. "DIE, THEN!" the man said, a little late. He swung, hard, but Daisy quickly dodged the steel.

Seeing an open moment, she tried to swing again, but the man caught her wrist mid-swing with his sword, not only stopping her attack, but cutting deep into her wrist, making her drop her weapon. She screamed, recoiling, as the knife dropped loudly to the ground. Holding her wrist, she backed away from the crazy man into the wall behind her.

The man, now seemingly large, loomed over her as he said, "Ah, missy, you should have just let me go," he said. He began to look her over, and Daisy, disgusted, form a fetal position, trying to stop the blood from her wrist. Tears formed in her eyes, making her vision blurry as he continued. "You know, I have some… friends that would _love_ your corpse."

He brought his machete up, and Daisy thought, as she held her bleeding wrist, _This is it. I couldn't even survive a day._

The man's right leg flew out from under him as a gunshot filled their ears. Screaming in agony, the man fell to the ground, leaving Daisy _alive_ in surprise and terror.

She looked toward the door- there stood _another_ man, even younger than the first, his pistol pointing toward her and her attacker, a worried look on his face. Daisy ducked into her ball on the ground and started to cry, seeking a refuge from the horrible people in this hell. She heard the man run toward them, shouting at the crazy man, saying things like "Are you _kidding_ me?! You wanted to take supplies from _this_ poor thing? She's, like, _12!_ Who do you think you are?!"

Daisy, confused, looked out from her ball, and saw the newcomer standing over the crazy man, the newcomer's foot on her attacker's chest, pointing a gun at his face. The boy shook his head, and held a disgusted face as the man screamed in pain, holding his leg.

Daisy flinched as the second gunshot rang in her ears.

After a few seconds of silence, her savior looked toward her, his face worried again. She quickly looked away, forming her ball once more, and trying to stop her wrist from bleeding too much. Maybe if she was submissive, he would let her live. Maybe he would let her go… but probably not. Especially without some form of payment.

Daisy heard her defender pick up her knife and walk toward her. As he kneeled down next to her self-made ball, "Are you okay?" he said, delicately, "Are you hurt? Please, I won't hurt you."

Daisy took a risk, and looked outside her ball at the boy on his knee in front of her. He was maybe 15, Ryan's age, with sideswept hair, and the most intense blue eyes she'd ever seen. He held a kind looking face, but she didn't know whether she should trust him. He just killed a man, though a sorry excuse for one.

Daisy took her knife, which the boy was motioning for her to take. "Thank you," she said. "I… can't thank you enough."

"What's your name? I promise I won't take anything, or hurt you, or whatever. And, really, my word is worth something."

"It's… Daisy. What's yours?"

"Nice to meet you, Daisy. I'm Christopher."


	7. Chapter 7 - Christopher

Chapter 7- Christopher

The fire in front of Christopher glowed and let off an orange hue that reflected itself in the eyes of the girl in front of him. Originally, they were green, but mixed with the fire, her eyes were set ablaze, and Christopher found that he could not help but stare.

After he'd gotten that nasty cut taken care of, it took a few hours, but he'd finally calmed her down after the attack. When he asked about how she had gotten out here alone, and why she had just now come out into Dead Rapture, she told him her story, hesitantly. If he hadn't seen Ryan himself (even though he didn't know the stupid kid's name at the time), he would have never believed in her story. But because he did, he knew how much trouble she could be in. He knew she didn't trust him, and he couldn't blame her, but he found himself wanting to help the girl. He couldn't just let some non-addicted pre-teen die in this place.

As for her other brother, Luke or something, he had no idea where to look. Usually, he knew who and what was in this area, but he'd never seen someone new. But, then again, he never knew about Daisy and her family the whole time they were there. Her family must have never gone out of the house, or else Chris would've known about them.

So he thought. Where would someone go to find adam? He knew about a Little Sister around Poseidon's Theatre, but other than that, he had no idea. He knew of another Little Sister, but it was around the Undersea Heights hotel- that was much farther away from Daisy's house than the theatre. He supposed that's where they may as well start unless Daisy had any other ideas.

Looking at Daisy, he asked, "So, do you have any ideas about where you want to look for your brothers next, or were you just wandering around aimlessly? I have an idea, but I don't know if you had a special plan or not."

Not looking away from the fire, Daisy mumbled, "I don't. I guess I was expecting to simply _come across_ Luke, not actually look for him. I was going to look for a new place to live, and some new people who could help me, and then maybe someday I would find him and Ryan again. Not that I _want_ to find Ryan." She shivered, and tensed up, rubbing her arms with her palms. Chris recalled how cold it was underneath the ocean.

Chris, feeling bad, got a blanket from his bag. "Uh, here," he said, offering it to her. She looked at him gratefully, took the blanket, and put around her shoulders. Obviously warmer, she relaxed a little.

"Anyway," he said awkwardly, "I, uh, heard about a Little Sister around Poseidon's Theatre, maybe we should check that out…" Tears started to roll down Daisy's cheeks, hitting the ground with a soft patter. Chris remembered his first night. The darkness and loneliness of the underwater city could only make someone cry if they were not used to it.

"Sure," she said sadly, "we can do that." Silently, she wiped her eyes, looking away from Chris, hoping he wouldn't see. Quickly, Chris looked away too. A person's most fragile state, Chris thought, was when they were broken down. Most words were wrong ones.

Chris felt bad, but he felt that if he tried to help her, she would push him away like that Ryan did. Did that kind of thing run in a family? Not wanting help? Just in case, he decided to wait until another day, when they knew each other better. Then, it wouldn't be like he was trying to gain her trust. Of course, he wanted her trust, but he didn't want her to know that.

Casually, he brought out his sleeping bag from his backpack and laid it next to the fire. "You don't mind if I stay for the night, do you? I promise I won't kill you or take your stuff."

Surprised, she looked at Chris, tilting her head to her right. Her eyes were shot, but she seemed to have stopped crying for the moment."I… sure, I guess. But what do you want?"

Now Chris was confused. "What do I want?"

"Well…" she looked back at the fire, hesitant. "You did just fine without me. What good can I do you? I don't really have anything, just some food, and I'm not that good in combat, as you already saw. ...What do you want?"

"Uh…" he had not been prepared for this. "I guess, for now, I just need a place to stay for the night." He hated lying.

"...Okay."

"Uh, yeah, I'll make sure the door is locked. Goodnight."

Thankful for the end of that weird conversation, he got up and walked toward the door. Looking at the control panel, he figured out the best way to hack it. This door had the meter model set, which meant that Chris simply had to activate the needle in the correct place. This also meant that this building was a newer part of Rapture, he recalled, built in the second phase of building. Older doors had this weird flow pipe hack system, which forced him to connect certain directional pipes before the electricity short-circuited. He hated those.

Thinking back to his conversation, he figured that maybe she wouldn't be the trusty companion in the adventures, but he still wanted someone to help. He had nothing else to do. And, either way, he just met her an hour ago, she could be, like, a sociopath or something, and making this whole story up and was planning to kill Chris in his sleep. _Hopefully not,_ he thought as he started on the door.

When he was done, he looked back at Daisy. She was already asleep, laying down on the blanket he had given her. That was good- Chris thought she'd take hours to finally fall asleep after what happened. Usually, a person would stay awake for a while after they were attacked for the first time. Sadly, he had experience in the subject.

Quietly, he slipped into his own bedroll. Whispering "Goodnight," as he always did to no one in particular, he closed his eyes and dreamt.

Rapture was a weird place, to say the least, but _dream_ Rapture was much weirder. Tonight was a normal night, with an extra new one. Chris's dreams ranged from nightmares- Big Daddies chasing him through the night, wave after wave of feral splicers, a Little Sister plunging her syringe inside him while he was _alive_ \- to dreams of intense feeling- His mother's last look at him before she got into the submarine and went to the surface, his childhood best friend getting driven through with a Bouncer drill- and a new dream- the buildings around him failing, and the relentless strength of the ocean crushing him, drowning him, destroying his entire being. Because it was new, it was much scarier, and much more intense. It seemed _real._ All of Chris's did, but most of his dreams were memories. This was a true nightmare- not a memory, but an entirely new story from inside his deep sub-conscious. Chris's dreams affected him more than other's dreams affected them- he remembered them perfectly. Each and every one- the good ones, the bad ones, the scary ones, all of them. Sometimes, a human scream would break through his dreams, making him clench his muscles in real life, making him more tired in the morning than when he fell asleep.

Chris woke up on his own. This night's round of dreams was worse than normal, probably due to the new person he met the day before. As he blinked the tiredness away from his eyes, he was relieved to find the door closed, the fire out, and Daisy in her bedroll, her chest rising and falling lightly.

He set the fire up again, as it was still _very_ cold in that room, and wondered,

 _What does this day hold for me?_


	8. Chapter 8 - Luke

Chapter 8- Luke

It seemed Luke's luck had finally turned up; he was now on the 10th floor, over a span of 2 days of stairs and then rooms and then stairs and then rooms. He had found plenty of food to last him until he got down and even a few more pistol rounds. Luke was relatively happy- something interesting was happening for the first time in weeks.

Around the 16th level, he'd heard a Little Sister's voice far below him- around the 8 or 9th floor. Luke had nothing to attack a Tin Can with, but… he had a plan especially for this one. He had yet to ever use it, but he couldn't see why it wouldn't work.

As he moved down the flight of stairs leading to the 9th floor, he began to hear the girl's voice very clearly. This was not Lucy, but they all sounded similar.

"Sis! There aren't any _angels_ near us… where could they be?"

When he stepped down the last stair onto the 9th floor, he cautiously looked at his surroundings. Around him was a setup equal to those on the top floors, but even more worn-down and dilapidated. The two hallways on the left and right of him were just as horrible as the ones above him, but the one on the right had a mysterious liquid spilled all over the ground. The burgundy carpet that was in front of him had massive footprints on it- those of a Tin Can. All that was missing were their heavy, lumbering sounds and rumbles.

He looked around. Pulling out his revolver, he got ready for anything. He walked slowly down the first hallway, following the high-pitched voice. He steadily crept over into the hallway to his left- the voice came from there. As he walked, all of the unlocked doors opened themselves, and he looked in to see if he could find anything real quick.

As he came to the end of the hallway, he went through his plan again. Rehearsing it in his mind, he found that if there really was no Tin Can, this would be much easier than previously thought.

He looked around the corner of the hallway- looking for anything that might viciously murder him before he jumped out blindly into the open passing. He'd met some… rather rude people earlier in his hotel adventures and did not want to experience that again.

Anyway, walking happily down the center of the hallway, with her massive syringe, was a gray-skinned little girl, in a pastel blue dress. The pink ribbon in her ash-black hair bounced with every step. Her bare feet made tiny splashing noises in the puddles as she traipsed down the creepy corridor. She was quiet for a Little Sister, not speaking a word as she found her way through the massive hotel.

As he came back into cover, Luke wondered… _What is protecting this little girl?_

Having located her, he felt a surge of happiness and some relief. Maybe he could make it home with some adam, and hopefully keep Father alive. All he had to do was get this one into a room, alone…

He'd never personally done a harvest, but it looked simple enough, and Luke had found a nice looking knife earlier, on the 19th floor. The thought kind of disgusted him, but he figured he would do anything to get back with adam in hand. He considered her dead anyway.

He looked around the corner again. She was facing toward Luke, now, but either she couldn't see him or she didn't care, as she walked around the corner and right past him with looking up at him or saying a word. Luke, confused, stood still for a moment.

He didn't want to do this, but he had to live, he told himself.

He sprinted toward the girl, not caring about silence or stealth. His feet seemed to fly over the ground as he dipped down and picked her up, mid-sprint, and threw her over his shoulder. She shrieked, and immediately started to fight back, shouting " _Help!_ " and kicking with all her might. She was strong for such a small thing, but Luke held on with all of his strength.

He barely made it twenty feet down the alleyway before an incredibly loud, high pitched _screeech_ filled his head, and he almost dropped the girl out of pain. The locks on all of the doors in the hallway snapped shut, ruining a crucial part of Luke's plan. He slowed down for a moment, almost reaching up to cover his ears, but pressed on, trying to find cover.

As the sound died away, he began to imagine what could have made it. He'd never heard anything so excruciatingly painful in his life.

With all the doors locked, he kept running- straight out into the 9th floor entrance, where the elevators and the stairs were found. He tried running directly into the next hallway across from him, but a sudden fireball from behind him found its way to the liquid on the ground, making it explode, catching the carpet all around him on fire.

As he stood, bewildered, the creature pursuing him screamed again, and Luke, now worried for his life, dropped the girl and ran- through the fire, not into the stairs, but in the opposite direction. As he stepped onto the balcony, he looked for another way out- possibly another set of stairs, a rope, anything to get him away from this horrible creature.

His mind started spinning as soon as it figured out that he was 10 stories high off of the ground. Deranged, he went right, this time, sprinting for his life, but failed to realize that the corner connecting east and south balconies was completely gone, forming an unsurpassable hole in his path.

He quickly stopped himself from flying off the edge and, his wits coming back to him, also realized that the railing next to him was non-existent. Shaking his head he turned around, thinking of sprinting the other way.

But, in front of him, was the creature. A feminine, humanoid monster wearing a monotone, tan bodysuit, with a diving helmet, like that of a Tin Can's, but smaller. The center eye, glowing a deep red, stared at him menacingly. Its right hand was on fire, and on its left hand was a syringe, but different. Instead of a small, mobile syringe with a baby bottle on the back, like a little sister's, this syringe was more like a blade- it looked razor sharp, and the adam retracting capabilities of a normal one was built in.

He'd never thought he'd ever meet one of these. He thought they were only legends. This was a Big Sister.

Luke stood still as it walked slowly toward him. He could not fight this, only hope it had a drop of mercy in its blood.

When it was about an arm's length away from Luke, it stopped and tilted its heavy head to the right.

He brought his hands up, so slowly. Softly, as not to startle it, he began, "It's... it's okay, I already let her g-"

Luke's apology was cut off as it suddenly came forward, grabbed his left shoulder, and impaled him with its blade. His eyes blurred, and he recalled the Sister looking at him with its single bloody eye as it lifted him off of the ground. The pain was the worst he had ever felt times itself fifty times, and he coughed up blood as it dropped his limp body to the ground. He felt wet, warm blood soak into his shirt and coughed up some more. As he lay there, the creature looked down at him with no emotion- a blank, fatal, stare.

He was so confused- he'd let her go, why did it do this to him? He wasn't going to hurt her, not badly! This was wrong, and painful, oh so painful, but he couldn't stop it, no. His vision went blurry for a moment and went back to focus. The wretched thing was in the same position, the same exact spot, just _staring_ down at him. He could've sworn it was mocking him, but he didn't have much time to think about it.

Viciously vengeful, he grabbed his pistol, which was now lying on the floor beside him, pulled it up, slowly, and shot at the creature, three times. The first completely missed, and the monster didn't move, didn't even flinch. The second got closer, but only hit the side of the helmet, making it take a step back. It tilted its head to the side again, confused.

The third bullet found its way straight into the horror's eyeglass, ending its life with a quick shot. The light went out of its eye, leaving a dark, black hole. It didn't flinch, just immediately went limp, and fell, straight down, off the balcony, into the center of the hotel. Luke let his head fall back onto the ground.

And everything went black at the bottom of the ocean.


	9. Chapter 9 - Daisy

Chapter 9- Daisy

Daisy bolted up at the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. Her heart beating, she remembered the events of the days past while checking her surroundings. Luke's disappearance, the destroyed Suns, Ryan's whiny escape, Father's death, her own near-death experience, and… Christopher.

He terrified her. Not because of a large physique or dominant words- he had quite the opposite of both of those- but only because she had _no idea_ what to think of him. She didn't know who he really was- just 'Christopher'- or why he helped her or what he wanted. She could think of nothing to give to repay him for what he did, but she felt bad that he would leave empty-handed. Nagging thoughts in the back of her mind appreciated the fact that he was still where he was the night before, and none of her belongings were in a different place.

And, fortunately, she wasn't dead. He hadn't killed her during the night, or stolen all of her things and left. The only thing left of the fight was her wrist, which was cut pretty badly. Christopher had used some bandages from his pack to bind the cut, delicately wrapping the soft cloth around her tiny arm. Thinking back on the night before, she realized that normally she would _never_ let that happen again. Any other person in Rapture, she guessed, would have taken the chance to steal all of her belongings and kill her in the process. She supposed she had simply been too tired to protest.

The loud sound that caused her fright was Christopher shoving a huge piece of wooden debris onto the fire pit. When he saw her bolt up at the sound, he flinched, saying, "Woah, there, nothing bad happening, it's okay," and as she began to relax, "Rise and shine, survivor. You've officially lived through your first night in Rapture."

"Yeah, great first day. What time is it? I have some food we can eat in my bag," Daisy greeted him drowsily, brushing her messy hair out of her face.

"I've got some food, too, I'll cover it for today. You've been through… a lot, lately." After making sure the debris would not fall, he moved to his bag, grabbed it, and looked inside. "Let's see, some jerky, Pep Bars, instant oatmeal, canned beans, an some canned fruits, and some sweets. I think I'll have myself some peaches, what about you?"

Daisy, delightfully surprised, answered with, "Um, I'll take some jerky, I guess." Was this just another ploy to gain her trust? Or did he really have that much food in his bag?

He threw some jerky in a bag toward her, which she caught and opened immediately. As she began chewing on her first piece, she realized that the savory dried beef was a better breakfast for her than usual. All she had to eat at home was stuff Luke brought back, and he never could seem to find anything particularly delicious.

"So, we gonna head out today, or do want another day to rest? Personally, I think it'd be better to follow the former, but if you need time, that's fine," Christopher cheerfully suggested. He seemed happier than yesterday, for some reason.

 _No_ , Daisy thought, _I can't trust him. I saw what the first guy did, why should I trust this one?_ "Um, ya, we can start to get going today. My arm is better than it was last night, and doesn't _feel_ infected. Maybe we can get a move on to the Theatre, and, uh, check around there." She looked at her hands in her lap, following the intricate pattern of the bandage.

"That sounds like a good idea. I think it's only a small walk from here to Poseidon's, if we take the right route." He took a small map from his pocket and began to trace their route. "Start getting ready, we should leave soon. The earlier the better," he finished, walking toward his backpack.

Becoming slightly nervous about leaving the relative safety of the room, she walked to her own bag and made sure everything was in order. She strapped her knife back onto her belt and made sure her gun was still loaded.

"Where'd you learn to shoot one of those?" Christopher inquired.

"Um, my father showed me a while back. He thought we should know how to defend ourselves early. Obviously, though, it hasn't worked well for me," she told him, shrugging. She remembered the first time she actually shot something on target by herself; an old soda bottle, made of glass. She was about 25 feet away from it, and was _so_ proud when she hit it, shattering it into a thousand pieces. It was a good memory, one of her few.

"Well, you're alive," he replied. "They must have helped somehow."

"Yeah, my number one defense mechanism is stalling and hoping another person will show up to kill my attacker. Works every time." She shot back sarcastically.

"It has so far," he retorted, finally walking toward the door. "Alright, ready? Those back streets were quiet yesterday, but nothing really stays the same in this part of town."

"Yes. Let's go," Daisy confidently announced.

The two followed main passageways through Rapture for a while, the sea around them only blocked by a thin layer of glass, until Christopher led her to a small service door leading even farther underground. As she walked in, the first thing she noticed was that it was _cramped._ The cement walls and pipes all around her hugged her too tightly for comfort; if they were trapped in here, it'd be hard to get out very fast. Daisy didn't like that.

From there, they went onward, for what seemed like hours. The companions didn't talk for fear of an unwanted threat hearing them, so all they heard was the creepy ambiance of water and gas running through pipes all around them. Daisy thought they sounded like screams, but she knew it was just her imagination.

For what the city looked like outside, the service tunnels were in remarkably good shape. Instead of the common fallen rock, wood, and plastic, the most of the debris was a leaking pipe or a broken-into first-aid box. Daisy felt weird with everything around her being so… clean. Never before had she had a whole wall that was smooth cement for hundreds of feet. She was used to seeing chunks ripped out, or something of that sort.

It seemed like miles before Daisy finally asked, "Christopher, how much farther do you think it'll be? We've been walking for hours."

"Uh, first of all, call me Chris. And for your question, it should be coming up pretty quickly," replied the newly named Chris. After walking for a few minutes longer, he pointed to a hallway on their right with a sign above that read, _Tunnel to POSEIDON'S THEATRE._ "Here we go," he whispered.

He took cover on the wall to the right of the hallway, and unsheathed his gun. Daisy, after a pause of recognition, took her place beside him, unsheathing her knife with a quick _ssswp_. Neither of the travelers heard anything to be worried about, but both knew that they'd better be cautious.

Chris stuck his head out into the hall, looked about for a moment, then got off the wall and put his gun back into its holster. "Nothing there," he stated simply. Daisy sheathed her blade and followed Chris as he walked into the hall, cautious.

"Is the something to be worried about?" Daisy questioned. Did he know about something he wasn't telling her? "Will someone be there?"

"Uh, no, of course not, it's just that… well, I've met people here before. Not very nice people. Just… listen around and tell me if you hear anything behind us," he told her, obviously understating how 'not very nice' these people were. Daisy gave him a look, then nodded, not wanting to argue in this tiny hall.

The thing was only one person wide, so the two survivors took a single file layout as they trekked toward a door at the end of the corridor, presumably leading into the Theatre. Once there, Chris brought up his gun once again. He looked at Daisy, and whispered, "I'll open the door, you shoot at anything that moves. Unless it's your brother," he paused. "That'd be ironic though, wouldn't it?"

She brought her gun, loaded it, and nodded.

He quickly opened the door, causing a loud squeaking sound, and Daisy immediately brought up her gun, aiming through the door.

Nothing appeared in her view, so she moved through the door into the Poseidon's Theatre Plaza. Her heartbeat quickened at what she found. A multitude of mutilated corpses lain around the room; one was leaning on the wall opposite her, blood smearing down toward where he had been held, or thrown. Many of his limbs were obviously broken, but he was the most intact of the group. A second was a genderless mound of flesh, bones, and cloth in the center of the room. A third was the corpse of a large man, his torso completely crushed into itself. The last corpse she found was similar to the corpse in the center, except she could see the outline of a man's body instead of a clump of human. His chest wasn't crushed, but it was out of his body, leaving a gaping hole where his ribs should be. His face was contorted into a permanent state of horror, and his left hand was black, as if burnt.

Daisy's eyes widened as she took in the scene. She'd never seen a dead person before, except for her father, and she wished she would never see one again. After a pause, she walked slowly to one of the mutilated while Chris warned her to do the opposite. Upon closer inspection, the body she went to first, the large man with a crushed torso, looked like he had been… trampled? By what? "What happened to him? What could have done this?" she asked. She tried to steady her breathing.

Chris, walking up beside her, looked at it for a moment. "This seems seems like he suffered a tragic case of 'get crushed by a Big Daddy foot' syndrome. Poor guy, probably was just trying to do a job." He looked around the plaza. "I don't see any signs of your brother. Did he mention anything about a group?"

After trying to figure out what a 'Big Daddy' was, Daisy thought about the recent past. She vaguely recalled him telling her about a plasmid wielding leader, but he never spoke about anyone else in the group. "Not really. He may have told me about a guy with the Electro Bolt plasmid, but other than that, I don't remember anything."

"Well… that might help us. Which one of these poor souls doesn't have a weapon? They may be our guy." He walked around the room, to each of the brutally destroyed corpses. He started with a man leaning on a wall, blood covering everything. "This guy looks like he was… held up against the wall? No, that wouldn't explain the smashed back. Thrown into it? Yes, that'd explain the dent in the wall too. Ya, this is definitely a fight with a Big Daddy. Which tells us that they were trying to get to a little girl. That's what Luke was doing, right? Finding adam?"

"Yes… he _must_ have been here! This is good, but where did he go?" She looked at the pile of desecrated body in the center of the room. "No… he wouldn't be so stupid… he, he had a gun, he would have stayed far away from the Tin Can, not ran toward it…"

Chris studied the corpse even closer. "He had a gun?" He shook his head. "This thing doesn't have a gun, so don't worry, I'm pretty sure it's not him," he finished.

She sighed, with her voice and her entire body. "Goodness, we need to find him."

When he looked back up at her, his eyes focused on something behind her. Jumping up, he began to yell " _Watch ou-"_ before she was hit.

Something hard smashed into the back of her head, and the ground rushed up to meet her.


	10. Chapter 10 - Ryan

Chapter 10- Ryan

He truly did not know what to do.

It was the 2nd day since the destruction of his home. After the first night, he'd decided to move away from home, and up, possibly to the surface if he could. He was mixed between wanting to find people that could help him and not wanting to meet new people that could end up killing him. Sadly, it was becoming a sort of priority.

His legs were like mush.

He had to walk incredibly slowly because of the things, having to basically pull them along, as they would barely work by themselves. They could lift him move, but they couldn't do much else. He had to stabilize every step with his hands on his legs, trying to balance while enduring the pain of his bruises.

He had gotten past a relatively far distance since his punishment, considering how much time had passed and how disgustingly horrible his legs were. During his travel, he thought he had heard… music, or some structured sounds, off and on, far away from him. The first time he'd listened intently, trying to discover its origin, but couldn't focus on it well enough. He decided to ignore it then.

But presently, it was all he could focus on. He was currently inside a restaurant, trying to find food of some sort, and he could hear them, outside the shop, but far away. It sounded like a calibration system- a series of computer generated pitches and a strong, base beat, with a high hat on the upbeat. No words, just sounds.

Where there was music, there was people, right? Where there were people, there was food, and drinkable water. He felt his mouth water at the idea of a decent meal. Maybe there would be some shelter as well; just somewhere he could stay for a bit.

Walking out of the pretty restaurant humbled, he followed the music for a while. The same tune went on the whole time he was walking- a strong 15 minutes, at least- until he saw a woman, dressed in ripped up jeans and a spaghetti strap, run into the room Ryan was in. She looked around frantically, trying to find a way out. Her face was incredibly pale, and her eyes were incredibly bloodshot, almost to where her eyes looked completely red. She was very scrawny, and her movements were quick and exaggerated, like a pigeon's. Quickly, Ryan blocked the only door out of the room besides a boarded up hole in the wall, seemingly leading into a back hallway. He wanted to talk.

Speaking loudly, as the music was getting very loud, he started, "Hello, miss, do you have some food? I'm afraid I'm havi-"

She paid him no attention as she ripped the wood off the boarded door, nails and wood falling to the ground, and scrambled through the hole, toward the music.

After a pause of befuddlement, he quickly followed her, tried not to step on the loose nails on the ground.

 _She runs_ fast _,_ Ryan thought.

She ran quickly down the hallway and turned into a side path, leading out into another massive plaza. The music here was intense, and blaring. Just before he got into the room, though, he jumped back as gunshots began to sound inside. The gunshots only seemed to scare Ryan though, as countless other people, with red eyes and pale skin like the first woman, pushed him to the wall and filed in quickly, running like madmen. The gunshots kept sounding, and Ryan could hear the bullets entering into human flesh, and, visualizing the scene, almost vomited.

This cycle went on for about what seemed to Ryan to be days, but was really just about an hour. He had no idea where these murderers were getting all their ammo, but it was wasn't running out. For some reason, dozens of people ran into the room every minute, just to be gunned down with a blank stare on their corpse's face. There was a variety of these people- men, women, boys, girls, all races- but there was one thing they all had in common. They all had blood red eyes, and most were scrawny and appeared weak. All of them ran considerably fast, however. It was obvious to Ryan that they were looking for something.

While Ryan was thinking about this, a lull in the people began. Less and less people ran in, and after about twenty minutes without gunshots, the music faded out, and Ryan could finally hear the voices of the killers.

"Jesus, that was a _lot of fucking hypnos._ We should get paid, like, double for that."

"Seriously, what time is it? We wanted to be back by like 6 or something, right?"

"I don't know what time it is, Caiden has the fucking watch."

"It's 6:34. We're late," said Caiden, presumably.

Ryan quietly got up from his corner he had slipped into and peeked out into the large area. Inside was a lot of dead bodies, and four men. The first he saw wore a red leather jacket, black jeans, and black glasses. His hair was a bright blue in the front, and his bangs went down the side of his face. The second man was slightly taller, with longer hair that worked like a shaggy mop. He wore a dirty white tee shirt, blue jeans, and held a modern looking gun in his hands. The third wore a black shirt and dark jeans, had slicked up hair, and had huge overhead headphones on his neck, which were connected to something in his pocket by a bright red cord. Finally, the fourth had another leather jacket on, but black, and recently had had a buzz cut. He walked around and looked through the dead people's pockets.

As he looked and studied these new people, he noticed something crawling in the vents high above the group. As he watched, it crawled to a place above the red guy, and dropped, an obvious assassination attempt. Ryan didn't know what made him do it, but before the assassin could kill the man Ryan yelled out and said

"Watch out, above you!"

There were mixed reactions. The shaggy haired man simply shot at the sky; The black-leather-jacket-man looked straight at Ryan, pulling out a pistol; The one being attacked, the red-leather-jacket-man, quickly looked up, seeing his attacker, and side-stepped, allowing the assassin to crash into the ground.

The man pointing a gun at Ryan looked at the obvious greater threat, but the black-clothed assassin was doing nothing but screaming and lying on the ground, looking at his destroyed and broken legs. The group crowded around the man, allowing him to wither in his pain for many moments. Finally, with a "Fuck, man," the man with the pistol shot the guy in the face, flinging him to ground like all of the other dead bodies around him.

Next, they looked at Ryan. Guns down, red-leather-jacket-man asked, "Hey, kid, who are you? Thanks for saving my life and stuff."

Coming out the the safety of the door, Ryan replied, "My name's, uh, Ryan. You're… welcome, I guess. Do you guys have any food? Also, who are you? You guys just killed around 200 people, can you explain that?"

The leader looked back at his group. Whispering, he pointed to Ryan and asks the other what to do. After a moment of discussion, he turns to Ryan again and says, "We have food, but they're at our main place. I can take you to 'em, if you want."

Ryan did _not_ like the sound of traveling through Rapture with a bunch of soulless murderers, but he _did_ need a place to go. "What are your names first? A-and explain these people's deaths. And why was someone trying to kill you? Also how far away are these bandages? Do you have stuff for the trip? Why are you here in the first place? Why do you want to help me? And _what was with the music?!_ "

The leader spoke again. "Woah, man, chill out. We call ourselves-"

The modern-gun-man cut the leader off, saying "We call ourselves the Straggly GangBangers."

The emo guy spoke next. "We call ourselves the Dutiful Dill Pickles."

The third man tried not to laugh while the leader sighed. "People call us the Bullets. The Bullets of Rapture, or someshit like that. I'm Caiden. This is Jacob," he pointed to the shaggy haired man. He waved absently. "This is my brother, Aaron," he pointed to emo guy. "And this is Joshua. It's about an hour's walk. This 'assassin' is probably another fucking Alta lackey. He's nothing. And he's dead. These 'people' you are talking about are called hypnos; they aren't people, they don't control what they do. They look for adam and will kill anything for it. They were fucking up the town we live in, so we're clearing them out for some money. The music attracts them. They're blind, they only respond to sound, okay? Monologue over."

Ryan, overcome with too much new information, stuttered and said, "Uh, sure, I-I'll come, I'll come," for some reason. He guessed the prospect of food tantalized his subconscious as well.

"All right," he said, waving him over. "What's your story?"


	11. Chapter 11 - Christopher

Chapter 11- Christopher

The servant that had been assigned to him dutifully laid down his dinner in through the slot at the base of his metal door. He walked to it, thanking her, and picked up the first thing he saw on the plate- a quarter of a French baguette. The food here was actually pretty good. He looked around his gray, monotone steel prison cell again, and savored the taste of carbs he didn't need. After finishing the delicacy, he picked up the next thing on the tray- a bowl of minestrone soup. As he scooped the first spoonful into his mouth, he noticed the servant finally leaving. He wondered what took so long.

Prison was pretty boring. He hadn't been here for long, only about a day (he thought), but there was _nothing to do._ You could eat; you could think; you could sleep. That was about it. He decided to think most to think most of the time. Plans of getting out, wondering where Daisy ended up, wondering if he would die soon or not. The place seemed pretty secure; it would be a challenge to get out of here. And even if he did, he would have the entirety of Alta to deal with.

Alta was the slaving city who owned the prison he was so kindly entered into. He deducted pretty easily that soldiers from Alta had been the ones who'd attacked him and Daisy. The city and its government had… questionable ideals. Women to them were nothing more than breeding sows and slaves. The city was known all around Rapture, from what Christopher had heard, as the largest populated yet most close-minded; and as if that wasn't enough, the leaders loved human corpses- according to their frequent radio PSA's ("Remember- if _you_ find a dead body, donate it to science and get a sweet reward! Men for twenty dollars, women for ten."). Chris believed this was because corpses usually held loot, but Chris knew that he used them to conduct experiments. Squeeze massive amounts of adam into a body, see how much it holds, and see what happens. He knew because he'd broken into the facility.

This was Chris's theory; him and Daisy had been around Poseidon's theatre, which Chris had known was pretty close to the outskirts of Alta, and had been looking for Daisy's brother. All around Poseidon's theatre, because of the Big Daddy, there were corpses everywhere. Chris theorized that the soldiers saw them poking around dead people, and assumed for some reason that they were stealing them and then decided to call them traitors against Alta. Shoved them in the prison, so on and so forth.

Another theory was that the guards had mentioned them to Alta, and this whole thing was Alta's personal doing. As Chris mentioned to Daisy, he had history with the man, as an understatement. It would be no surprise to him to find that Alta heard his name and immediately sent him to his death.

And so he was here. In this prison, feeling fine, while Daisy was being slaved up or interrogated or tortured or something. He wanted to talk to Alta, or one of his minions; figure out what happened to Daisy, and when he would get out of here. He felt _horrible_ for what could be happening to Daisy. He had led her right into that, and she was probably suffering for trusting him. Maybe if they got out, he could find her brother and make it up to her. That would make everyone happy.

Breaking his thoughts, he heard footsteps sounding from the hall. Looking up, he saw that some of his wishes were granted; in front of the door were two burly men. One of them opened the metal door, and motioned for Chris to follow. Without much choice, Chris followed their orders, hoping he wouldn't see something he didn't want to see.

"Where're we going?" he asked.

The men weren't talkers.

They lead him through a long hallway, with metal prison doors passing on each side of him. He looked for Daisy, but could only see grisly men, many with beards. Chris could see the ribs of many, and some of them looked like a skeleton with skin on it. This made him ask the question of why Alta was feeding Chris so well. Perhaps it was a nice last meal before he was guillotine-d or something.

After a long walk, they turned left into another long hallway, with the same setup. Chris wondered how many cells there actually were in this place, and why so many were needed. The men eventually stopped at a conventional office door, and told Chris to go inside, and to be careful about what he said. Confused, he opened the door and stepped inside. The door shut behind him.

Inside the room was a normal, surface-like wooden desk, with a terminal, a pencil holder, and papers all over it. The walls were covered in an office standard wallpaper, and paintings of surface nature and flowers were speckled across the room. In front of the desk was a comfy looking fabric chair, and on the work side of the desk was a rolly chair. The person sitting in the chair was the surprise, however, as Chris thought this was the last person he could truly talk to.

He recognized the proportional, almost perfect face. This was Alta, the leader of… Alta.

"Come in, come in, sit down. We have things to speak about," he said with a sophisticated, but friendly voice. With no other choice, Chris accepted his offer and sat down in the chair in front of the homey desk.

"So I see you've been found ransacking our property- _again._ I had thought we had taught you well enough last time, but it seems I was wrong."

Before he could speak any further, Chris interrupted him. The hate in his voice could not be hidden. "I have never tried to steal your… _corpses._ It's vile. Even if I had been looting those corpses, there's nothing that shows that any dead bodies are yours _._ "

"It is well known throughout my city that the dead are off limits... which makes it even odder that you've been so stupid- twice. Anyway, no one can hear your reasoning, and I'm not changing anything, so you're wasting your breath," he said with a sneer. "You've been brought here to exchange words with me about your punishment- and yes, you're getting punished. It seems the pain that encompassed your punishment last time was not enough to remind you of your sins. So, seeing that _physical_ pain doesn't work, I plan on trying _social_ pain this time. Maybe it will work better."

Chris remembered the hell he'd been put through the first time, on the same account. Branding- in the shape of a crown, the symbol of Alta. It showed right in the center of his abdomen, reminding him, every day, of his hate toward the man, and the city. Branding was the severe consequence for thieving, but Chris had been punished that way because of his breaking and entering.

At the same time, he didn't like the sound of this… social pain. Obviously, it had something to do with Daisy, as she was the last person he had interacted with, but what could this leader do?

Voicing his assumption, he said "What are you gonna do to her? Or are you just going to say you'll do something and leave me to my wits? Is she dead already? Wouldn't that be _hilarious,"_ he spat. He felt himself beginning to get carried away, and tried to calm himself.

"Oh, no, she's not dead, yet," he said, shaking his head. He paused, tilting his head to his right. "With that information, I give you an offer I think you'll appreciate. It truly is masterwork." With a smile, Alta leaned forward in his chair and put his elbows on the desk. "She'll be punished… so you don't have to."

Chris tried hard not to show his confusion. "Elaborate."

"You go off, completely free from my grasp, and she gets punished for your crimes, instead. Simple."

After a pause of understanding, Chris asked, "Well, what would be _her_ punishment, then. Another damn branding?"

"Oh, I can't tell you _that_. That ruins the surprise, doesn't it? Oh, and another thing- when you leave, you can't come back. I'm done with you and your theatrics. You must leave, and never come back." And with a clap of his hands and a smile, he stood up and motioned him to leave the room. "So, leave this place, please. You know what you've done, you know that someone is getting punished, and will likely die, because of you, and you leave. Good. Bye."

"And if I refuse?" Chris inquired.

Suddenly, Alta's eyes turned incredibly intense, his eyes turning wild, and his lips turning into a snarl. "You cannot _refuse!"_ he yelled, slamming his fist into his desk and staring intently at him. The room became silent and bloated with battling auras of fear and unpredictability, as the two men stared into each other's eyes and waited for something more to happen. Alta's heavy breathing filled the room.

After a moment, the moment of insanity passed, his eyes became normal, and he lifted his hand from the desk lightly. "Excuse me," he apologized, "That happens sometimes, it is purely accidental. Now, get out. You don't belong here anymore."


	12. Chapter 12 - Daisy

Chapter 12- Daisy

For a prison, this place actually wasn't that bad. She got three meals a day, all better than her normal, she was safe (she assumed), and here was the best part- books. Her guardians or whatever were willing to bring her any book she wanted. Reading was now her favorite thing to do, as she hadn't had many books before she left. Now that she had a basically unlimited supply, all she did was read for the last couple days. It was _great._

She had started off with a pretty basic one, but a classic- _20,000 Leagues Under the Sea._ She found it ironic. Then she went to a different book, though it was slightly worse in her opinion- _Of Mice and Men._ It was okay, but, to her, it was pretty boring about 90% of the time.

Currently, Daisy was leaning against the cement wall of her cell, about halfway through Bradbury's _Fahrenheit 451,_ with her legs crossed and her hair shoved into a messy bun atop her head. The guards had her clothes washed for the first time ever, and they felt great. She was more comfortable now than she had been in a _long_ time.

Her guards were surprisingly kind to her. They were all women, and they never talked. Even when prompted, they just shook their heads. For some reason, they constantly had a worried look on their faces, as well, looking behind them down the hallway as if something was going to reach out and grab them. Any time Daisy questioned it, they just shook their heads, and walked away. It was… odd. And very quiet. All she had her books. She couldn't complain.

At the sound of light footsteps, she lifted her head. One of the youngest ones, maybe 10 or 11, stepped in front of her cell, and looked at her. She had that same worried look on her face as she always did, and she pointed one of her hands toward the hallway.

"What's up?" Daisy asked, "Is something wrong?"

The girl kept one hand pointed at the hallway, brought the other one up, and partly extended her first two fingers, moving them like legs. At first, Daisy had no idea what she was doing, but then a suggestion popped up in her mind.

"Is someone coming? Why can't you just _tell_ me?"

The girl shook her head, getting frustrated. She looked up, pointed at the hallway, and made a face Daisy supposed was meant to be mean, or angry.

"Okay, so the people or things coming are mean?"

She nodded her head vigorously, with a fearful expression.

"...Okay, I'll keep an eye out, thanks."

The girl shook her head. She made the face again, but with extra emphasis.

"Umm… They're _really_ mean? I'm sorry, I might not be understanding you. I can't really do anything to prepare. How bad could it get, anyway? Everyone seems nice so far."

The girl's eyes widened at Daisy's last question. She shook her head again, seemingly mad at Daisy now. She stomped her right foot, saying _They're very mean!_

Daisy gave the girl a look of pity. "Um, ya, okay…" she replied, not convinced.

The girl looked away, obviously trying to find a way to show Daisy of the people's supposed atrocities. After a moment, her face lit up, and she looked back at Daisy, not with anger, but now with worry.

She brought her hand up, pointing at her mouth. Then, with her other hand, she made a mouth, opening and closing it.

"Talking."

She nodded. Then, she brought her other hand to cover up the mouth.

"They… you can't talk with them around?"

Negative. She shook her head, and looked away, trying to figure out another way to voice her ideas. After a moment, she sighed, and looked back up at Daisy, as if she were preparing for something she didn't want to do. Then, she opened her mouth to show something.

After a moment of confusion, Daisy looked. Inside, where a tongue should have been, there was… nothing. Just a stubby, cauterized muscle stemming from the back of her throat.

"They… c-cut out your tongue…?" Daisy asked, horrified.

She nodded slowly, and closed her mouth, her eyes forming into warning and worry.

The thought finally entered her mind. Standing up, she asked the question, "Are you saying they're going to _cut out my tongue?"_

The shrugged and shook her head slowly. _Maybe._

Panic pushed at the back of her mind, but she pushed it back. She looked around her cell for a weapon she could easily hide in her two tiny pockets. Her mind immediately went to her flimsy bed. Maybe there was a detachable metal part?

Thanking the girl desperately, she moved to her bed, taking the mattress off. Looking it over, the only thing she could find was the leg, which she could easily unscrew with her hands. The thing is, it definitely wouldn't fit in her pockets- it was a couple feet long.

The girl, still outside her cell, breathed out loudly. When Daisy looked back at her, she pointed toward the hallway frantically and started walking away.

Daisy mouthed _thank you,_ and heard loud, large sounding footsteps from far away.

Turning back to the bed, she decided this was her only option. She pulled the flimsy bed frame out and unscrewed the back leg frantically, hoping the guards simply wouldn't see. When it was done, though, the bed fell out of balance and tilted toward the missing leg. Daisy could hear the footsteps closer now, coming down the hallway she was in.

Quickly thinking, she set the bar down and made a stack of most of the books she had gotten. She shoved them underneath the missing leg, forming an adequate level of the bed, and hurriedly shoved it back into place. She grabbed the stick and held it behind her back just as a man stepped in front of her cell, armored but small. She grinned at him, looking casual.

"Ready to go?" he asked. He stepped forward and began unlocking the door. After it opened with a heavy _screech,_ he stood back and lifted his right arm, motioning for her to walk down the hallway.

Daisy cocked her head. "Where?" she asked, walking into the hall. Somehow, she seemed to keep the stick out of the guard's sight by moving her arms from her back to her front.

"Oh, it's fun, you'll see. Right this way." Daisy had to shift her arms again as he walked in front of her to lead the way. Unfortunately, as she moved the bar past her hip, the end hit the ground, making a dull _dong._

He looked at her cautiously. "What are you hiding?" he asked with kind grin.

Without any other choice, she screamed and swung the bar, with all of her power, at the guard's unprotected face.

The guard's eyes widened and he quickly put his arm up, successfully catching the bar. With a disappointed frown, he pulled it away from her.

"Where the hell'd you get this? You're lucky I'm in a decent mood. Anyway, right this way. It'd probably be best for both of us if you stopped fighting," the man growled.

Surprised she wasn't dead yet, Daisy followed the guard down the hallway, trying to find another way out of whatever was about to happen.

The pair turned left at the end of the dreaded hallway, and, after a while more of walking through a prison full of starving people, pushed open a set of double doors and walked into a circle of heavily armored guards. Above their heads, Daisy could see bright, colored lights, and she heard other people, though all masculine, talking. Above her, possibly twenty-or-so feet above, was a metal ceiling, gray and monotone above her. On the sides of the city were glass windows, showcasing the dark greens and blues of the ocean floor. After a moment, she realized that she was in a city.

The guards walked her through the city, their height disabling her view. It was very cold in the room, and it smelled of fish and spices. She heard many, many people in the place, with shouts sounding everywhere.

After what seemed like minutes, the guards opened up and her guard moved her through another set of doors into a new looking, pre-war style building. Inside, everything was a clean white- the walls, the floor, even most of the furniture. When she stopped for a moment to take it in, the guard pushed on her back from behind in urgency. "Come on," he prompted, "We have to go."

They walked down another hallway (Daisy wondered how many were in the city) and moved into a small room, with a door on the other side of their entrance. It looked like some sort of mudroom, a place to get ready in.

As she walked inside, he stayed at the door. "Usually they have a uniform for this, but you look okay right now anyway," he explained as he looked over her entire body. She felt uncomfortable, and crossed her arms, closing him out. "Just head on through that door when you're ready, okay? Have fun." And before she could object, he shut the door, and, after a moment, she heard the click of the mechanical lock.

She turned around and looked at the door in front of her. It was metal, painted white, and slid open automatically when someone stood in front of it, like the other doors in the building. It looked cold.

As it slid open, her eyes were greeted with more white. The room was modern-looking, almost sci-fi, and a single yellow band circled the room's walls. In the center of the square room was a single bed, fitted with white sheets, pillows, and blankets. A chest rested at the front of the bed. On one side of the room, backed up to the wall, was a white, leather couch. And on the couch was a boy, probably her age, maybe a year older, dressed in blue jeans and a white- ugh -shirt. His head lifted as she walked into the room, looking around. His brown hair fell behind his head, but was not long enough to be slightly feminine. He looked at her with boredom at first, and then, after a moment, his eyes widened slightly, as if he'd remembered something.

"Uh, hi, I'm Andrew. Hope the trip here wasn't too bad," he said, standing up and holding out his hand.

After a moment of caution, Daisy took it and took note of his shaky grip. "Hi. My name's- my name's Daisy," she said nervously, letting go of his hand. "Do you know why we're here? I was kind of rushed over, and didn't get any details."

He put his hands to his side and cocked his head in confusion. "You… you don't know?"

Daisy shook her head, scared for whatever answer may come.

"Uh… Why'd you volunteer, then?"

 _Volunteer?_

"Volunteer? Uh, no, definitely not. I just came from… Well, I was never really told about what this place is," she explained. She wasn't sure if yelling out to everyone that she had been in jail minutes before was the best idea.

"Wait, you didn't volunteer for this? I… see," he said, looking at the ground.

 _What does_ that _mean?_ she thought.

He began to pace. After a moment, he explained, "Um, I'm trying to find a way to say this. So, this place is called a Population Center." He looked up at her as if he were worried about how she'd react. "They shove two people in here and lock them in until they… you know… populate. Procreate."

Daisy caught full awareness of her entire body. She began thinking. "...What?" she whispered. She crossed her arms, and looked away from the boy in front of her. "That's disgusting."

And she truly thought it was. Ever since she'd been taught about the process of sexual reproduction in her old group, she was repulsed by the entire subject. It just seemed… gross. Tiring. Unsanitary? Either way, not fun.

Andrew's confident facade began to falter. "I know," he said, quietly.

"How did _you_ get in here?" Daisy said, beginning to get angry over the situation. What right did anyone have to shove her in some room and have a kid with a stranger?

"I signed up," he said quickly, as if it was a given. When Daisy looked at him with surprise, he shook his head. "It's not really a choice, okay? It's, like, a becoming of age. You know, go in a boy, come out a man sort of thing. You're not from around here, are you?" He sighed. "They just gave me pictures and ages. I chose the one who looked the nicest."

Daisy had none of this flattery. "Well, I'm sorry, but I'm not having sex, or giving _birth._ When do they let us out?" she asked, looking around the room for disgusting cameras or something.

He put on a face to show that he was done with being coy. "They don't. If you don't want to… do anything, then we're stuck, because I'm not gonna force you. I'm just saying, we should get this over with and get out of this place."

She physically shivered in disgust. She could not believe where she was, or that such a place could even exist. "Or, we could figure out a way to get us out of here. This is a very boring room to be in for nine months."

He shook his head. "Look, people don't just 'get out' of this place. It's locked up and sealed."

"Then... let's find the key."


	13. Chapter 13 - Ryan

Chapter 13- Ryan

"All right, kid, welcome to our home base."

The home of the Bullets was a very small, insignificant apartment on the outskirts of a city Ryan had never heard of. People called it Copper Point, relating to the last shipment from the surface to Rapture, holding literal tons of copper. Originally, it was a port connecting the surface and Rapture, and the children and grandchildren of those who managed it in the beginning were still there. Joshua told Ryan that after the Lamb incident, they stayed relatively dormant for decades, using diving suits to catch fish for food, but when those failed, or the people working them got bored, they left, sharing word of the simple fishing town to the rest of Rapture. This caused huge population growth in a tiny amount of time, and it was still on its high, making it a main city in Rapture.

When Ryan asked how Joshua knew all this, he answered with a small amount of shame, or embarrassment in his voice. "I like to go to the library. Me and Caiden go all the time, and the city's history is all over the place. The people, the shops, there's even a fucking _museum_ , so it's pretty hard to miss."

And he was right. As the group walked through the streets, shops and stalls were set up on the streets, the merchants calling out prices and quantities, trying to sell whatever mystical product they were selling. Their merchandise was extremely varied, from fried fish to computer circuitry. And even with the amount of mercantile diversity, they only walked through side streets and backways. Ryan couldn't _imagine_ what it was like in the center of town.

Anyway, as they walked up the the house, Jacob turned to Ryan and, walking backwards, showcased the city with his arms. "Well? What do you think?"

"Um, it's pretty cool," Ryan answered, trying to fit in by using the group's lingo. For some reason, he felt small and awkward around the group. It wasn't a feeling he really liked. "I've never really been in a city this big, so it's actually pretty weird."

"Ya, it was like that for us too, at first. It gets better, I promise."

When Caiden finally opened the door, the group walked in and immediately flopped onto their respective spots on the furniture. Jacob basically tackled a pillow on a fabric couch, Aaron went straight to the small and insignificant kitchen, Joshua took his place on the ground leaning on the couch, and Caiden sat in a huge bean bag next to it. Ryan, not knowing where to go, stood awkwardly in the doorway until Jacob took notice of him.

"Oh, here, sorry," he apologised, and scrunched up his legs to leave a sufficient amount of space for a normal human to be comfortable. As Ryan sat down, he noticed that he didn't seem to be a normal human, and forced a smile of thanks.

Then, after a moment of restful silence, a child's voice appeared from the hallway.

"Caiden, you're home! Did you do it? Did you win?" it asked. Caiden stood up from his seat with a smile as a young girl ran up to him and hugged his torso.

"Yeah we did! We beat 'em up real good."

"Are you all okay?" she asked, and she looked at the rest of the group. When her eyes met Ryan's, she exclaimed, "Who's _that?_ He looks… sad."

Caiden, like a common parent, looked surprised at her pointing out of the obvious. "Woah! Watch it, dude. This is Ryan. He's… lost his home, and we decided to help him back up on his feet. And, no, none of us are hurt. What about you? How was staying home with Bob?"

"I heard my name," a lower, adult voice said. Turning around on the couch, Ryan looked at the source of the new voice. He was another man, probably the same age as the rest of the group, and he had straight, blonde hair. A short beard covering the lower half of his face was the same color. "Oh, hey, guys. Ya, I did a fine job doing literally nothing for three days. Alta's re-airing his speeches, and they're fucking hilarious any time you watch it."

When given a dirty look from Caiden, he looked at the girl and smiled apologetically. "Uh, _really_ hilarious."

Finally, Caiden looked to Ryan to introduce the new members. Looking to the girl, he smiled happily and said, "This is Josie, my little sibling. Our parents were taken out when she was a toddler, so she's all I've got." Pointing to the man leaning in the hallway behind them, he introduced him to Ryan. "This is Bob, our drummer."

"Drummer? F-for what?"

Caiden's eyes widened in surprise. "You don't know? We're musicians. Look at the walls, man."

Sure enough, when Ryan looked closely, he saw that on the walls were musical decorations, such as guitars on the walls and a desk with papers Ryan assumed were work-in-progress songs. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, slightly cautious.

"Well, I hate to be braggy or whatever, but we're pretty popular here. I mean, listen to the radio. It's mostly our stuff coming from Three Sisters. I thought you already knew." Looking at the group, he remembered something. "Oh ya. Guys, we have a concert in like four hours. We should get ready and head over pretty soon."

The group walked out the door with the same outfits; the same leather jackets and black shirts. Even Bob didn't change, and he had pajama sweats on. The only difference was that Caiden now wore blue-rimmed reflective sunglasses. Josie came along too, being too young to stay home alone, and Ryan had been allowed to tag along for the 'concert' backstage. They gave him some slip of paper to get in and told him that "A lot of people would pay a lot of money to have that slip, man. You should savor it, cause we can't give many more to strangers," to which he replied, "Am I really a stranger anymore?" smiling. Caiden made a _touche_ face and walked on.

It was odd, because the group _walked_ to the venue, accompanied by a group of guards. Ryan had never been given such an escort, but it was needed. It was about an hour before the scheduled concert time, yet a crowd was formed in the front of the building, and once they saw they guards and the group they were guarding, they ran over quickly and screamed at them for some reason, trying to get at the group. Josie just smiled and waved at them. "Man, they love you guys," she observed.

Ryan was slightly scared. If the guards failed to do their jobs, or just decided it wasn't worth it, what could happen? Luckily, the back door leading backstage came at them quicker than Ryan expected, and they were safe inside once again. The group began to walk towards a hallway directly behind the stage, obviously having done this before, when a small hand pulled on Ryan's sleeve, keeping him back from the group. Turning around, he found Josie. "Backstage 'guests' go this way," she said, walking toward a room opposite the hallway the group had disappeared into.

Once inside, he looked at the room around him, walls painted a hollywood red with a black leather couch facing a fancy tv. "Is anyone else going to be here?" he asked.

"I don't know. Sometimes there are, but they're usually pretty nice. Just really rich fans or something like that." She promptly turned on the tv to some cartoon channel and sat in the middle of the couch.

Ryan sat on her right. "So, do you like the music your brother plays? I've never heard it."

She looked at him, her head tilted. "Really? That's odd. I thought everyone in Rapture listened to the Bullets. But, yeah, I think I like their music. Especially when it's live. It's so fun to _watch._ The only problem is that they use… _bad words,_ " she explained, her voice dropping to a whisper.

Ryan smiled. "Oh, that's horrible! What do they gain from that?"

She shook her head, with a face that shows that she's asked the same question. "They said it 'adds emphasis' or something like that. I think it's dumb."

"How old are you?" Ryan asked, genuinely curious for once.

"Six. Uh, Seven in four months."

"Wow! And you get a backstage pass to these concerts?"

"Yup. Pretty cool, right?"

At that moment, the door opened, and some people entered, flashing their passes to the security guard in front of the door as they went. They all talked only to each other and paid no attention to the two kids already sitting. Ryan counted 4 people- 2 ladies and 2 men- each with sleek glasses, presumably filled with alcohol. They all looked stereotypically rich. One girl had a white fur scarf around her neck, with rhinestones all over her blouse in fanciful patterns. The man talking specifically to her had a blue button-up, connected to his slacks with expensive straps. As they walked in and sat on a couch across the room, a smell filled the air that confirmed there was beer.

Josie took the remote and changed the channel again- this time to the channel airing the concert. Ryan could see the stage was black, and the entire room was dark, but that there were a _lot_ of people in the main area. All it looked like to him was a writhing mass of bodies and arms, as well as cheap plastic cups _everywhere._ He didn't know where one could find so many. Every person had one, and many had two, drinking both (basically pouring beer all over themselves) at the same time.

Suddenly, a spotlight formed on the stage, revealing a short asian girl, dressed in all black. A drumset behind the stage set a beat with the cymbals and the bass drum, and the girl began to speak in a foreign language. Ryan thought it sounded like Japanese, but wasn't exactly sure. Not many foreign languages were spoken in Rapture. As she was talking, another spotlight shined, revealing Joshua on his guitar, playing a single, minor melody.

A few beats after the girl's foreign monologue, the entire stage lit up with intensely bright lights, colored with all of the rainbow. Lasers split the air at the fastest speed possible, and the crowd went _wild._ The drums and the single guitar suddenly played louder as the stage lit up with normal lights, revealing Bob behind the drums, and Jacob on the opposite side of Joshua, his guitar in hand. Caiden, excitedly, ran onto the stage from the left, passed Joshua, and jumped into the center, mic in hand. He sang partly with the guitar's melody for a few measures, after which he began his own melody. Ryan couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, but this is what his brain pushed together:

 _Everybody pay attention to me,_

 _I got the answer_

 _I got the answer!_

 _lkjshlkj lkjsdl kjhsldk with a capital G_

 _So get your hands up_ he shouted, putting his non-mic arm up in the air.

 _So get your hands up!_ The crowd immediately followed.

 _Hide your eyes we're gonna shine tonight,_

 _Nananana never get the best of me_

 _Ain't a slugger gonna save my soul_

 _...Sold it long ago for rock and roll_

 _dhakjhds when the tape kjsaodskj blows_

 _I gotta shout this out so everybody knows_

 _This ain't a party_

 _get off the dance floor-_ He pointed at the center of the crowd where a hole had formed.

 _You want to get down?_

 _here comes the gang lord_

 _You're doin' alright_

 _I got the answer_

 _Cause all the good times_

 _they give you cancer_

 _If we were all jhdasl lkjh in the end,_

 _Oh we'd be killing ourselves by sleepin' in_

 _So hit the lights, I'll do it again_

 _And keep your cars, and your dogs, and your famous friends_

 _Away_

 _Slide up the fahslhkj when the cabhsoi slams_

 _and get your hands up_

 _now get your hands up!_

 _Light up the stage and watch me Kick Out The Jams!_

 _So throw your fists up,_

 _So throw your fists up!_

 _Ain't nobody gonna take my life_

 _Ain't nobody gonna get my heart off me_

 _Ain't a preacher gonna save me now,_

 _grab a seat I'm gonna show you how_

 _Everybody hit the pyro cue_

 _We're gonna blow this off_

 _and show you what we do_

While they sang the main chorus again, Ryan thought about what he was seeing. Caiden looked like he was having the best time ever, but still not smiling. As Ryan noticed, though, Josie was. She looked at Ryan, looking at his reaction, but Ryan didn't even know his reaction himself. Did he like this? It was very… specific. No other music he'd ever heard before sounded like this. Before he could make up his mind, the chorus ended and the song when to a new verse, softer than normal, and the asian girl ran back on stage, but with her shirt off. She had a black bra, too. She seemed wilder than before, probably taking it from the crowd.

 _We came to party_

 _Kill the party tonight._

 _Kill the party,_

 _Kill the party tonight._

The asian girl did another short monologue before rocking with the group on stage. As the song began to end, she did so in between the band's written phrases:

 _So everybody get down_

 _till the party breaks down_

 _Now everybody get down,_

 _everybody get down,_

 _Till the party breaks down_

 _To-night_

The song ended with a _Fuck Yeah!_ from Caiden.

Turning to the asian girl, he looked at her ludicrously. "Who the hell are you?" he asked, laughing. The crowd went with him as well as the girl looked shyly around the room. "Where'd you get a mic?"

And from Joshua, but quietly, without speakers: "Dude, that's my mic!"

The girl laughed, dropped the mic, and quickly ran off stage, picking her shirt up on the way out. Caiden turned back to the crowd. "Alright, how is everyone on this glorious night of wonderment and _acid?_ "

The crowd roared. _Acid,_ Ryan thought. _What is acid?_

The guy in the muscle shirt sitting behind him called over. "You guys want some? It's better out there, though," he said, holding a pair of small strips of what looked like paper, kind of like a stamp. On them was a picture of the Cheshire Cat, smiling in all of his glory.

Ryan, at first, didn't answer, not sure what it was, but Josie stepped in first. "No, that's alright," she said.

The man shrugged. "More for us," he smiled, shoving them in his pocket.

Looking back to the tv, Caiden

announced their next song. "Alright, we call this one The Runaway Ballad." The crowd went wild as relatively quieter synthesizer formed a major chord. He looked down at the ground with the mic to his mouth, as if to hide his face, and began the song, a heartful, lyrical one with lyrics with stories behind them.

The crowd was wild as the song played through, throwing each other around and carrying lucky people close to the stage. The security had their work cut out for them- every couple minutes or so another fan would be thrown toward the stage, to be immediately thrown off by the lightly armored guards.

Ryan liked The Runaway Ballad- it was relatively tame, and the lyrics, at least the ones he could make out, showed that the singer wanted to 'run away, run away from here.' The stage lit up with blue, turquoise, and foam green lights for this song.

Caiden ended with his left hand straight up in the air, like a movie star's pose. The silence that followed in Ryan's room was interrupted by a… moan? Startled, he looked behind him, only to see that one of the pairs was 'getting steamy,' as the Bullets would put it. The blue-shirted man was on top of the rich girl, exploring inside her shirt. The other two awkwardly sat beside them, trying to ignore the two making out right next to them.

Josie sighed. "I hate when they do that," she said, standing up and walking toward the door. Ryan, confused, quickly got up and followed, the sounds behind him increasing in tempo.

As Josie opened the door, Ryan heard the difference in the main hall compared to the VIP room, or whatever it was called. It was much, much louder. He could hear the crowd's insane yelling as Caiden alluded to his next song, The Only Hope. Not only was the sound amplified, though, as the smell of beer, vomit, and sweat became _overwhelming._ Just as Ryan walked out, he almost choked on the vaguely tangible stench. Josie didn't even flinch. The door they came out of led straight to the stage left, where multiple members of the concert faculty were sitting and drinking.

Josie touched Ryan's shoulder. "I know a pretty cool lookout place, if you wanna come," she told him excitedly. Ryan, basically without a choice, nodded, and followed Josie as she walked away from the stage and towards the corridors that ran along the concert hall.

The hallway they walked through was filled with more people, drinking, vomiting, and simply sitting on the ground, drugged out, looking at the ground or at their hands, fascinated. They went past the people gingerly, avoiding eye contact, and refused any offers of "happy pills" anyone gave them. When finally toward the end, Josie turned into a doorway on the left, looking back at Ryan with a grin to make sure he was following. All the while, beat-heavy music played in the center of the venue, and the whole place was almost pitch black.

Inside the doorway was a set of stairs, leading upward. Josie, without hesitation, bounded up the first flight with no problem. Ryan, though, was reintroduced to the pain in his legs halfway through. Luckily, the stairs only went up about 2.5 stories, and when the two got up there, Josie asked, "You okay? You look, pained."

Ryan didn't want her to see what he'd done to himself, for some reason. "Ya, I'm fine. Just… super out of shape," he consoled her. The top of the staircase was empty except for a lone door in the center of the tiny room. When Josie opened it, Ryan found himself shocked.

Outside was a balcony overlooking the entire concert hall, almost touching the ceiling. It had an iron, venetian style rail, stopping someone from falling off. From the top of the hall, the concert looked even better. Ryan could see the entire light show, as well as the whole group, who had moved on to another song. He sat in the first of two conveniently placed chairs on the balcony. He supposed this spot was not unknown to many. Josie sat in the other, looking at Ryan with attentive eyes.

Josie looked out over the scene. "Pretty cool, right? The guys showed it to me. I love it here."

Ryan didn't respond; he was taking in the entire expanse in front of him.

The concert ended with a song called 3,2,1. It seemed to be about… becoming a movie star? Or vampires? The bad things about Rapturian society? Something like that, he couldn't tell past the lights and the crowd.

After, though, the crowd obviously wanted more, still. Some cried _encore! encore!_ , while others shouted _What I Said! What I Said!_

Caiden suddenly looked… alarmed, almost scared, or shy. A complete change from the rest of the concert. He shook his head, saying "That's all for tonight, guys," but Jacob prodded him on.

"Aw, come on, Caiden. One more song."

Caiden back at him with a strange facial expression, then said "Um, okay, yeah, sure. What I Said To Her, everybody." He cued Jacob, who started a major chorded guitar solo.

While he played, Ryan looked at Josie with confused expression.

"He doesn't really like singing the original album," she explained.

Before Ryan could question her further, the main melody started with Caiden shouting:

 _Well let's go back to the middle of the day that starts it all_

 _I can't begin to let you know just what I'm feeling_

 _And now the red ones make me fly, and the blue ones help me fall,_

 _And I think I'll blow my brains against the ceiling_

 _And as the fragments of my skull begin to fall_

 _Fall on your tongue like angel dust_

 _Just think happy thoughts_

 _And we'll fly home_

 _We'll fly home_

 _You and I, I_

 _We'll fly home_

The sound of this song was much different than the other songs; it was rougher, less appealing the first time. Many of the words were screamed rather than sung. Ryan… wasn't sure what to think. A short guitar solo, this time supplied by Joshua, ran before the the first chorus, again.

 _Well let's go back to the middle of the day that starts it all._

 _I can't begin to let you know just what I'm feeling._

 _And now these red ones make me fly, and the blue ones help me fall,_

 _And I think I'll blow my brains... against the ceiling,_

 _Now,_

 _We'll fly home,_

 _You and I, I_

 _We'll fly home._

 _Now honestly, that's what I said to her,_

 _What I said to her… Rah!_

The sound dropped and allowed a falling bass guitar solo as the crowd clapped along to the beat, while Caiden finished the song.

 _Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts, Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts,_

 _Think ha… Ya!_


	14. Chapter 14 - Josie

Chapter 14- Josie

The ending of the concert went smoothly after that, the crowd willingly leaving the area after the band left the stage. Josie heard later that literal hundreds of people came, from all over Rapture. This confused her because, as much as she liked Bullets' music, she didn't know that she would walk for days to go to a single concert, no matter how bright the lights were. But that was just her. Or maybe it was because she was around them all the time- they hummed their songs all the time, since there wasn't much else.

As they walked into their apartment after the concert, she reflected on this. "Caiden, is there any other… types of music in Rapture? All I hear is guitars and, like, angst."

Caiden, in front of her, turned around to look at her. He looked tired. "There are a couple other stations than Three Sisters, but we don't listen to them much. There's a classical one, a jazz one, and a propaganda station."

"Oh."

The crew flopped on their respective resting places, Ryan even taking the spot he had earlier. Josie yawned. What time was it? She was tired. Her head kinda hurt, too. The concert was tiring just to _look_ at, let alone take place in. The lights everywhere, the frequent headbanging she had tried to take place in, and the climb up the seemingly endless staircase at the end had left her drained.

"I'm going to sleep. My head kinda hurts. Goodnight," she said, her eyes half closed.

Caiden remembered something and looked at her. "Josie, be honest. Did you eat or drink anything bad tonight?"

She smiled, proud of herself. "Nope! Some guy in the guest room offered us these strip things with the Cheshire cat on it, but me and Ryan said no. Some drunk girl spilled stuff onto my shirt, though," she said, pointing out the stain.

"Good, Josie. That's really, really good. I hope Ryan didn't give you too much trouble?" he said. His eyes drooped. He had been thinking tonight.

She shook her head widely. "I showed him my spot on the top, and he didn't really talk much after that."

Ryan joined in. "Yeah, that place was insane. You could see the whole place!"

Josie nodded. She looked back at Caiden. "Can I go?"

"Ya, ya, sure. Goodnight, darling. Sweet dreams."

Her room was as dark as it usually was, with no lighting on the outside or the inside. All that was there was a small oil lantern that smelled all the time. Her bed was a small one, a twin, as Joshua had called it, and it had military green sheets and a black blanket. When she looked at her clock, it showed 2:13. She assumed a.m. She changed into a soft sleeping dress, then slipped into her bed.

As she lay there, looking straight up at the ceiling, she grinned, happy with the night.

She woke up to voices and commotion coming from the living room. The voices sounded worried, or scared, and came from everyone except Caiden and Ryan, she thought.

She blinked open her eyes slowly, though it was easy to adjust to the dark room around her. When she looked at her clock, it read 4:26. Two hours. Nice sleep.

She got out of the bed, still hearing the voices outside. Wrapping her blanket around her, she opened the door into the hallway leading to the living room. As she opened it, she squinted, her eyes not accustomed to the light, yet. The sounds got louder the wider she opened the door. Confused, she walked out into the hallway, seeing Jacob, with a worried look on his face, yelling at an unknown object outside of her line of sight.

"Just put it down, man, come on. You don't want to do this. Tonight's concert was great, right? Think of that."

Drawn in, she walked slowly to the end of the hallway.

"Caiden, please don't do this. There's so much more to do. Please." Aaron.

"Ya, dude, think of what we can do now that we have a real fan base! There's so much more for us to do, just set it down." Bob.

When Josie got to the end of the hallway, her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped. She dropped the blanket wrapped around her, the one that protected her. Time stopped.

In the middle of the living room was Caiden, hunched over and crying, with a pistol up to his temple.

"Caiden?" she asked, bringing her hand up to her mouth. She didn't know why, but felt it was important to hide her initial reaction.

He looked at her, tears running down his face. He was slow, so very slow. Everything was. "God… Goddammit, Josie, no… You weren't supposed to _see_ this…" he said, his voice a whisper.

Oh, no. This was bad, very bad. Josie brought both hands up to her mouth, covering her surprise, and tried to think of something good to say, and quick. Josie somehow knew that Caiden, no matter how much she didn't want him to, wanted to pull that trigger. She knew how he only ever smiled on stage or when with her, and she knew about the people he'd tried to talk to. The others told her everything whenever they were drunk. They said he was depressed.

She thought carefully about what she was about to say. This wasn't little girl stuff anymore, this was serious; her brother's life was on the line. Carefully, as if to sound like she didn't understand, she asked quietly, "What… what are you doing?"

He never took the gun away from his head. "I… I'm going away, Josie. It'll be a while until you see me again-"

"But what about Arcadia?" she blurted.

"Arcadia?"

"Do you remember…? I… think it was my fifth birthday, you told me that someday, we'd… we'd go to Arcadia, and look at the trees, and make flower crowns in the field, and… and see the Three Sisters and play with them… I-I've been wanting to go for some time now, a-and you were mentioning a recording session with them soon anyways…"

Caiden looked at Josie as if she were a traitor, as if she were putting him through even more dreadful pain. Josie felt a tear roll down her cheek, feeling horrible, but she knew she'd force an infinite amount of guilt trips on her older brother, if it would keep him alive.

He looked back at the ground, as if making a decision. For what seemed like hours, days, Josie figured Caiden was questioning his will to live. Finally, with a sigh, Caiden dropped the gun from his temple and allowed it to fall onto the floor with a _smack_. Joshua ran up to him, supporting him, and gave a deep hug, looking relieved. The rest of the group came in, too, making a group hug around Caiden, who was still crying. Ryan looked at Josie, impressed, for some reason.

When the moment ended, and the group dispersed, Caiden looked back at Josie with a hard face. "Fine, then. Whenever you want, we'll go to Arcadia. Well, at least after tonight. I'm going to sleep," he ended, walking past her into the hallway.

Joshua, following him, walked her way, and bent down on his knee to get to her height. He put his hands on her shoulders, looking straight into her eyes. "Thank you," he murmured. Something more than friendship was in his eyes whenever he looked at Caiden, she knew. This must have meant a ton to him. He hugged her as she started crying, finally.

Aaron leaned on the wall, holding his hands to his head as if trying to think, and said, "You saved our fucking brother." The other guys fell on to their seats, exhausted.

"Why would he do that? He would just leave me? Would he really have done that?" Josie asked. Her mind felt weird, tired, and she had so many more questions in her mind than what she had voiced. Her tears soaked into Joshua's black flannel, making it wet to the touch. He stayed in the hug as he answered her.

"He wouldn't just leave you, Josie. You know that. He was just… not thinking normally. Only thinking of the bad things, and when you came along, he recognized again that there _are_ good things. He wasn't trying to get away from you or let you down," he whispered comfortingly, his voice a light cadence in response to the earlier shouting.

Josie broke out of the hug, and look at him, his amber eyes and pierced nose. "Are… are you sure?" she asked, needing something to confirm her good thoughts. She wiped away some of the tears on her cheeks, sniffling.

"I promise. He loves you, Josie. You should know that."


End file.
